I 



Caledonian B)Mt\fts, 

OR A 

TOUR THROUGH SCOTLAND 

IN 1807. 

TO IVHICH IS PREFIXED 

An Explanatory Address to the Public upon 

A RECENT TRIAL. 

BY SIR JOHN CARE, 

AUTHOR OF THB NORTHERN SUMMER, STRANGER IN F RANGE, &C, &C. 



-Eft propria gloria Scotis, 



Polliciti fervare fidem, fanftumque vereri 

Numen amicitise Buchanan. 

** With gold and gems if Chilian mountains glow, 
If bleak and barren Scotia's hills arife— « 
There plague and poifon, luft and rapine, grow ; 
Here peaceful are the yales, and pure the fkies, 
And freedom fires the foul, and fparkles in the eyes. Beattie. 



LONDON PRINTED. 

NEW YORK PUBLISHED BY 

INSKEEP & BRADFORD, 

No. laS Broadway. 



1809, 



/ 



/? 



^ TO 



VISCOUNT VALENTIA, M. P. 

F. R. S. F. A. S. F. L. S. P. R. I. 

MEMBER OF 

THE ASIATIC SOCIETY OF BENGAL, AND THE LITERA- 
RY SOCIETY OF BOMBAY, 
VICE-PRESIDENT OF THE AFRICAN SOCIETY; 
VI CE-PRESIDENT OF THE LITERARY FUND, &c..&c &c. 



Mr LORD, 

TO you, who have devote so many years in 
the ardent and successful pursuit of knowledge in dis-. 
tant regions, the treasures of which you are about to 
pour into the lap of your country, I beg to have the 
honour of dedicating the following pages. 

Although, in extent and variety of research, as well 
as in the acquirements, toil, a?id enterprise necessary 
for its success, your Lordship has rarely been equalled, 
youhave not resembled those travellers, who, to a per- 
fect acquaintance with the laws, customs, and manners 
of other countries, unite an almost entire ignorance of 
their own. 



IV 

IVitJi the local, moral, and political character of the 
three divisions of the British empire, I know your 
Lordship is intimately conversant, and I hope that the 
representation zvhick I have attempted of the natives and 
the scenery of the northern branch of it will meet zvith 
your approbation. 

I have the honour to remain, 
My Lord, 

Your Lordship's obedient servant, 
JOHN CABR. 

: Garden- courts Temple. 
Dec. 20. 180S. 



EXPLANATORY ADDRESS 



TO 



THE PUBLIC! 



IN laying before the Public another literary pro- 
duction, I think it due, in point of propriety and re- 
spect, to advert to a circumstance which has lately 
brought my name before it, more especially as that 
circumstance is distantly connected with the present 
publication. I refer to an action which I brought a- 
gainst the publishers of a supposed libellous caricature 
print, and its explanation, of a personal and offensive 
nature, in consequence of which I have been charged 
by certain persons with having attempted a violence to 
the liberty of the press. 

Those whose hostility I have increased by that mea- 
sure have distorted the ground of that action : perhaps 
no object ever was more grossly and actively misrepre- 
sented. From the dominion which my adversaries had 
and have over some of the public prints, they had con- 
siderable means of adding to the injustice which they 
had before attempted to exercise. 

If the matter merely related to myself, from my 
respect to thf^ Public it should drop into oblivion ; but 



VI 

it is not my cause, so much as that of literature and 
its privileges, that is at stake. Truth has been not a 
little injured ; but yet, notwithstanding so many frac- 
tures, I hope to set every shattered bone, and restore 
her to her former symmetry. A loud outcry has been 
raised against me, in consequence of such gross mis- 
representation. The storm roared long and loud : I 
have v^aited for a calmer moment to reply. 

In 1806 I submitted to the Public the result of my 
observations made in the year preceding on the sister 
island, under the title of " The Stranger in Ireland, or 
a Tour in the Southern and AVestern Parts of that 
Country." In this work I avoided those topics upon 
which the public mind has been fearfully divided : I 
endeavoured to assist in effacing prejudices, and in 
making my readers of this country better acquainted 
with, and consequently more disposed to love and es- 
teem, our brethren in Ireland. The Public received 
my endeavours with such favour, that expensive as the 
work was, very neai"ly fifteen hundred copies of it have 
been sold. It has also had a large circulation upon the 
Continent and in America, where it has passed through 
several editions. Some highly respectable writers up- 
on matters connected with Ireland have honoured me 
by considering it as a work of authority, and by quo- 
ting from it. It moreover obtained for me the friend- 
ship and esteem of many distinguished and honourable 
persons, both here and in Ireland, as well Protestants 
as Catholics. I hope I may be permitted to state 
thus much, without an imputation of self-compla- 
cency. 

In 18Q7 a work was published, the object of whose 
title was, to make it appear, for the purpose of inju- 
ring me in the public opinion, that my Journal of this 



Vll 



long and rather laborious Tour had been contained in a 
few pencil hints, or memorandums. The body of the 
book was filled with fragments of distant and discord- 
ant sentences extracted from my works, absurdly 
jumbled together, and interspersed with falsehood and 
the vilest perversions, which were presented to the 
Public under the imposing mask of fair quotation. 

Had this attack been announced as a travesty, the 
Public would have regarded it as a burlesque, and I 
should have been as much disposed as any one to have 
smiled at what humour it might have possessed. In- 
deed I should have deemed it, in some measure, an 
honour ; for, as the nature of travesty is laughable de- 
formity, the original must at least possess some sym- 
metry, before it could be twisted into deformity. Nay, 
I should have felt myself flattered to have been placed 
in the same line of attack in which many illustrious 
literary characters have been assailed, although immea- 
surably removed from them in literary reputation. I 
should also have reflected that the Public would not be 
interested in the travesty of an unknown author. But 
many, who have never read the Tour in Ireland, have 
considered the quotations as authentic, and the com- 
ment as fair and candid. I am placed before a mirror 
that distorts, and the mirror is thought to represent 
me faithfully. Submitting to this malignant and mis- 
chievous attack as one of the pains and penalties at- 
tached to authorship, I took no notice of the first edi- 
tion. 

In the beginning of the following year, however, 
a second edition appeared, considerably enlarged, with 
several caricature prints. It was advertised, in a long 
and striking manner, in the London, and most of the 
provincial, newspapers 3 and, lest the Public should 



VllI 



mistake the object, my name, at full length, was in- 
troduced ; and the publishers, by means unusual in the 
trade with regard to works of such a nature, circulated 
an immense number of copies of it. 

The frontispiece of this publication, in most of its 
parts, and the explanation annexed to it, attempted 
personally to degrade me in a point of view that had 
no reference to my travels in Ireland. Legal advisers 
assured me that both were libellous ; and it would be 
impossible, I believe, even for my adversaries, to deny 
that their own Counsel partook of the same opinion ^ 
I was therefore induced to look for redress to the law. 
To prove that these caricature prints ought not to be 
considered as fair critical elucidation, I beg leave to 
call the attention of the reader to another of them. la 
my work I have mentioned, that the cruel custom of 
yoking the plough to the tail of the drawing horse, 
which once existed in the uncivilized parts of Ireland, 
has for some time past been discontinued ; yet, in this 
print, I am represented in the attitude of making a 
drawing of this barbarous usage ; and, if such print be 
admitted to be fair criticism, I am made by the artist's 
pencil to assert that the custom still endures. In fact 
I am assured that I have already incurred the displea- 
sure of some of the Irish, who have not perused my 
work, and who have been misled by this print, for 
having, as they thought, in this instance thrown an 
odium upon the character of their peasantry. To re- 
turn to the action, the frontispiece caricature, and the 
explanation, constituted the sole ground of my legal 
complaint. My declaration, or, as it is legally defined, 
a shewing in writing of the cause of complaint, em- 
braced no other ; and my proofs, as the law requires 
they should be, were confined to the inuendos contain* 



iX 

ed in the declaration. Could I have conceived, or had 
I been legally advised, that the Court, after my declara- 
tion had been so shaped, would have admitted of evi- 
dence to shew that the body of the obnoxious work 
was unfair criticism, I could have produced many dis- 
tinguished literary men to have proved it to have been 
so. When the cause came on, the Lord Chief Justice 
of the Court of King's Bench, who presided, main- 
tained that a personal caricature of an anthor may be 
considered as fair criticism, as far as he is connected 
with his work, and impressed such his opinion upoai 
the minds of the jury, who gave their verdict accord- 
ingly. My adversaries immediately announced the 
event as a victory obtained over an enemy to the press, 
and a person who wished to arm justice against criti- 
cism. I hope I shall not be considered as deviating 
from that respect which is due to Lord Ellenborough 
as a dignified magistrate, a scholar, and a gentleman, 
and from that reverence which ought to attend upon 
judicial opinion, if I submit a few further observa- 
tions. 

So far from aiming at the freedom of the press, 
I thought I was making a struggle on behalf of its li- 
berty, as well as its dignity, by an attempt to prevent 
both from being contaminated and brought into dis- 
credit by the low and base alliance of caricature and 
buffoonery ; and that I never did wish to interfere with 
the liberty of the press is plain from my not attacking- 
the first work, which was equally as unjust as the 
second. 

The most dignified satirists, such as Dryden, Boi- 
lean, Pope, Swift, and Young, never thought of lash- 
ing a man by pictures : that task they left to inferior 
artists ; they confined them'selves to their pens alone, 

B 



If there was any press that I wished to obtam a vic- 
tory over, it was not the literary press, but the carica- 
ture press. Plain fact will demonstrate that I could 
have no other intention. Had Lord Ellenborough 
thought the caricature and explanation were libellous, 
and had I, in consequence, obtained a verdict, the let- 
ter-press part of the work, without the caricatures, 
might have continued to be sold with impunity. 

With regard to the liberty of the press, its abuses 
have not made me cease to be enamoured v/ith its 
real utility. The censure of assailants, such as I have 
had, can no more detach me from revering the press, 
than the turpitude of a wicked priest can shake my 
veneration for religion. The liberty of the press is 
the boast of every honest Englishman, and the Judge 
who sacrifices something of justice in its defence is 
more entitled to his admiration than his censure ; or, if 
he awaken censure, he will find it but reluctantly rou- 
sed, and easily appeased; 

To fair legitimate criticism I have, upon the whole, 
much reason to be grateful. Fortunately for the lite- 
rature of Great Britain, in no country in the world is 
criticism so widely disseminated by jneans of the dif- 
ferent reviews. In these, my works, upon the whole, 
have been favourably dealt with ; and even where my 
feelings, as an author, may have been mortified, I 
should be more inclined to admit the liability to error 
in myself, than to suppose that a degree of censure 
had been extended to me, which, it was conceived, I 
did not deserve. I hope I have shewn enough to esta- 
blish that I was not so thoughtless as to appeal to the 
laws against criticism. No lawyer, if he valued bis 
character, would either have advised me to it, or ventu- 
red to open his lips in a court of justice in support of 



XI 

sucii an appeal. Literary reputation is at best but fruit 
lialf-filled with wasps: those who but attempt to gath- 
er it must expect to be stung. 

For my own part, I have ever considered criticism 
as the great palladium of literature. It is a guard be- 
tween bad taste and the Public. My maxim has ever 
been that of Gresset, " s'honorer des Critiques, et 
tacher de faire mieux." But to be assailed by the ma- 
lignant combination, which was proved, and uncon- 
troverted, upon the hearing of my cause — to be as- 
sailed by weapons unknown in that " bright armoury" 
from which the shafts of real wit and satire have hi- 
therto been levelled at mankind — will, I trust, be con- 
sidered as some apology for the imprudence with 
which I have been charged, of seeking protection in a 
court of justice. 

Satisfied with the happiness of moving in an ho- 
nourable society, and I trust of enjoying its esteem, 
taking no share, and acting no part, in those scenes 
which usually excite the ridicule of the caricaturist, I 
did hope that my venturing to lay before the Public 
remarks rnade, and opinions formed, during my dif- 
ferent tours, without seeking to embellish and enliven 
them with the surreptitious ornament of imagination, 
wou-ld not have roused him from his den to waylay me 
in my peaceful path. My expectations have been dis- 
appointed, and I must confess, I had not philosophy 
enough to witness with indifference, the almost unex- . 
ampled activity which was displayed in holding me up 
to the Public in every newspaper, and in the window 
of every petty retailer of literature, as an object un- 
worthy of the respectable opinion with which it has 
hitherto honoured my humble literary labours. I have 
only one observation more to make, which I owe in 



justice to myself, and my late Publisher, Sir Richard 
Phillips, who has been accused of having, from objects 
of personal feeling, prompted me to bring the action 
to which I have adverted. I can most solemnly declare 
that he never excited me to such a measure. I was 
solely guided by my own feelings, and the opinion of 
my legal advisers j and I trust that my character is too 
well known, and that I hold too respectable a situation 
in society, to encourage an expectation that I could be 
made the instrument of gratifying any man's privat*? 
animosity. 



1 AM too much indebted to many enlightened Gentlemen, in 
yariQus parts of Scotland, for the local information they have favour- 
ed me ivithy not to take this opportunity of publicly expressing my 
thanks and obligations. 

It is with cordial pleasure I mention, that, in the month of 
September last, the foundation-stone of the New Gaol of Edinburgh 
was laid. This Prison, so much and so long desired, is to be com- 
pleted from the excellent designs of Mr. Robert Reid. As soon as 
it is ready for the reception of prisoners, the present Tolbooth, men- 
tioned in the following Tour, will be pulled down. 

The Lord Provost and Magistrates are also about to male 
an application to Government for further aid, to enable them to finish 
the College. Those who support stich an application will do honour to 
themselves, and confer a lasting obligation upon that illustrious Sem-^ 
nary, • 



PROSPECTUS 



OF THE CONTENTS OF THE PRECEDING WORK. 



CHAPTER. 

J. Travelling infatuation: anecdote of a Scotchman in Italy, a confoting reflec- 
tion: Cambridge; its beautiful College-walks: the exquifitc architec- 
ture of King's College Chapel : Pembroke College : anecdote of Mr,- 
Pitt : Mr. Fox : a window full of abfurditles : facetious verfes : Dr. 
Clarke's antiques : Stamford : lingular mode of flrengthening a weak 
building : remarks upon York Minder : hints to Divines ; the caftle at 
York : Durham : remarks upon the cathedral and the prlfons. page 17 

It. A'village of butchers ; effedl of habit : Ben Johnfon's riddle : Spanilh proverb : 
Newcaltle: exportation of coals: curious anecdote of a fliot-tower : the 
village of Lemington : Roman piece of plate : Greenwich-hofpital lands : 
Hexham-abbey : Nature pretty equal in her giftg; Northumbrian dialeit : 
French language traceable in Northumberland: a hint to the Truftees of 
Greenwich hofpital : Roman wall: a Northumbrian fair : Watling-llreet; 
anecdote of Simy Dod : Capheaton : Wallington-houfe : 3 peel. 7.J 

III. Debateable land : the Ihepherds : ferocity of the ancient Borderers : anecdote of 

Bernard Gilpin : a royal remark upon a cow : beautiful ride to Jedburgh : 
Dr. Johnfon's entrance into Scotland : the cathedral of Jedburgh : Scot- 
tifli gardeners: the little nofe-gay girls: the prifon : Eildon Hills : Mel-, 
rofe : remarks upon its architefture : a lunar miftake : the Tweed : a 
traveller's firft impreflion of Edinburgh. 3.^ 

IV. The New Town : clerical impudence and medical modefty •• beautiful prome- 

nade : ftupendous earthen mound : humorous obfervations upon the wait- 
ers : Scottilh names : the twin brothers: Edinburgh improved Jn cleanli- 
nefs : a whimfical building : naked wainfcots : John Knox's houfe : Holy- 
rood-houfe: royal heads : the Stuarts and Bourbons : intereftiag portraits : 
Queen Mary's chamber : ancient upholftery. 44. 

V. Charafter of Queen Mary : anecdote of a true courtier: contetnptlble jealoufy 

of Queen Elizabeth: a parody: royal verfes: Mary's firft Englifli letter': 
the Chapel : Arthur's Seat : a mutiny : fuperb profpedl : Hume's rhonu- 
ment: the Bridewell: the Regifter-office : the Bank: Angular circum- 
flance : Rollin-caftle : fetmons in ilones : angels and bagpipes. 50 

VI. Hawthornden : anecdote of Drummond: Dalkeith: hotch-potch: anecdote of 

Dr. Johnfon : Dalkeith-houfe : the Royal Infirmary : the Parifli School : 
the New College : the Senatus Academicus : remarks upon the difci- 
pline of the College: th-; Medical School: remarks upon the profeflbrs : 
medical jurifprudencs : its objedts : its importance : the College Li- 
brary._ 6j 

VII. The Medical and Phyfieal Societies : the Speculative Society : controverfial 

fpirit amongft the profeli'ors : the Botanic Garden : Leith-walk : flefhers : 
Leith : the Grammar School : fail to Inchkeith : how formerly applied: 
the Bell Rock : the trade of Leith: its /hipping : French women: anec- 
dote of Sir Hugh Pallifer : diftilleries : effefts of ale and whilky contrafted : 
Scotlllh carriages : ftage-coaches : Heriot's Hofpital : the charity work- 
'roufe : Inftitution for the relief of the Wind : anecdote of a blind man. 74 



VIII. The niarkets of Edinburgh : rofes and ftrawberries : anecdote of abundance : 
Judicial Ellablifhrnent s the Court of Seffion : remarks u{ion the Judges : 
the Court of Judiciary : the Circuit Court : the Court of Exchequer : the 
Faculty of Advocates: Writers to the Signet: the College of Ju'ftice : 
Scottiih Lawyers diiVmguilhed for their genius and learning : the Advo- 
cates' Library : the Farliament-houfe : the Tolbooth : anecdote: privilege 
of the Scottifh executioner : royal farevi^ell : mortuary monuments few and 
bad ; the Scotlilh Church : anecdote of John Knox : the organ : whiftling 
kirks: wbimfical fpiritual fongs : Jews: Catholics. 85 

iX. Anecdote of Handel: organ at Glafgow: Queen Mary's exclamation: Scot- 
tilh pfalm-finging : the holy fair : theological acutenefs of the low Scotch : 
their devotion : exemplary conduft of Scottiih Clergy : Church livings : 
an Engliih tithe anecdote : Scottifh Clergy, how paid : religious anec- 
dote: fpecimens of devotional eloquence: Scotrifti Epifcopal Church: the 
maidi'.i: a curious relick : Edinburgh volunteers: Scottifh theatricals: 
fsngular theatrical anecdote : Mrs. Siddons : Macklin : a national change: 
more theatrical anecdotes. 97 

X. The Police oiSce : robberies : lightning of Edinburgh : fupplies of water : coals: 

frauds : the Ballantyne prefs : the Lunatic Afylum : the Charity-houfe : 
thegjolf: the cadees : a muficai banquet: the races: national prize- dan- 
cing : delicacy in danger : bagpipe anecdotes : harps : the harper's ffeat : 
King David : Scottifh melodies : Queen Mary and Purcel : Gold and 
Raw. 109 

XI. Portobello : Coftorpliine Hills : the Bafs : its hiflory interefling : Dudding- 

flone-houfe : the late Commander in Chief: Craigmillar-caftle : Paton's 
Exhibition: Scottifh painters : anecdotes of Wilkie : fubjefts of the Scot- 
tifh pencil : Scottifli muficai talte: dancing: General Poft-office : popu- 
lation of Edinburgh : remarks upon the lower and higher clafTes of fociety : 
patriotic anecdote : Scottifh marriages : Scotch in former times. 120 

XII. Scottifh pronunciation: William Dunbar : Scottifh language: humorous pro- 

vincialities : Scotticifms : mepaicity : Scottifh poor : poor laws: remarks: 
Scottifh poor, how provided for : anecdote of an Englifh everfeer of the 
poor : difference between Scottifh ^nd Englifh poor : Author leaves Edin- 
burgh : Queen's Ferry: Broomhall : Lord Elgin: vafl li me- quarries : 
Dunfermline-abbey. 133 

XIIL Hopetoun-houfe : procefs of tramping: Linlithgow: the palace; ancient 
Scottifh Court : afTaffination of the Regent Murray > Falkirk : Great 
Canal: the Catron Works ; the river Carron : Wallace's Oak : Stirling: 
Earl of Marr: Stirling-caflle : hiflorical incidents: James V. and the 
Italian Friar: Scottifh toilette : extraordiniary tides of the Forth. 142 

XIV. Alloa : Rumbling Bridge: Devil's Pulpit : I^och Leven : lingular fiege : anec- 

dotes of Queen Mary: love triumphant: Kinrofs : anecdotes of Michael 
Bruce : Ecce Tibur : Perth : hiftorical anecdotes : Gowrie's houfe : lin- 
gular miflake: the Bridge of Perth: BefTy Bell and Mary Grey: manu- 
factures of Perth : the prifon : anecdote of a female convert ; a remark 
upon tranfportation. 153 

XV. Scone : monkifh prophecy : Omnis Terra : round towers : the Carfe of Cow- 

rie: farm-fervants : Dundee: Boethius : Dr. Johnfon : Aberbrothick : 
the Abbey: Montrofe : Donnotter-caftle : Stonehaven: Aberdeen: epi- 
gram : the New Bridge : the Pier : Marifchal College: Dr. Beattie: the 
Prifon: Lunatic Afylum. 166 

XVI. Trade of New Aberdeen: manufa£lures : fhipping : land valuable; Dr. 

Johnfon's illiberality : Infirmary: Medical Society : literary charafters: 
the Athenaeum : Old Aberdeen : jurifdidiion of Magiftrates •■ the She- 
rifFs Court: Society of Advocates in Aberdeen: King's College: diftin- 
guifhcd characters : Danifh anecdote. 177 

XVII. Aberdeenfhire birds: Aberdeenfhire foreftry : Slanes-caflle : its extraordi- 

nary fituation: the late Earl of Errol : the Bullers of Buchan : Peter- 
head: efieft of firfl feeing a tree : Banff: Duff-houfe : the Earl of Fife: 
Gullen: fine marble: Finlater-houfe : Gordon-caftle : Elgin: anecdotes 
vi Scoui.'h peafants ; the Cathedral : rural economy. i8d 



Chap, 

XVIII. The J)an£S : r.oad to Tones : Fories : the V/eird Siftel's : Ihanks' najgy : 

peafants' civility; Nairn; peafants' humanity : Fort St. George't CuTlo-' 
den: the csattle : Prince Charles : an J'.onouiable rogue: the three rob- 
bers: anecdotes of the Pretender: royal magnanimity: family anecdotes 
of Flora Macdonald .' Invernefs : the Prifon : the Academy ; national de- 
licacy. 198 

XIX. Policy of Education : its eft'e£ls in the Higlilands : its general importance : 

fmgular eftefts of its advantages : Scottith Miirionaries on the Mountains 
of Caucafus : a comparifon : Scottiih aaJ Irifh peafants contrafted : the 
Miners' Library: Schools lor Education: the P a rifti Schools : the High- 
land Schools : the Charity Schools : Private Schools : remarks : anec- 
dote. 2,11 

XX. Invernefs continued : herring-fiihery : the Caledonia Canal : Highland work- 

men : national benefits of the Canal : remarks on internal improvement: 
Parochial Schools: Vitiified Forts: the Gaelic language: aaecdotes of 
its effefts in Afiatic Turkey. zzp 

XXI. Road to Fort Auguftus ; appearance of Loch Nefs defcribed: enormous 

ftones : anecdotes of General Wade ; General's hut : Fall of Fyers : caves : 
Fort Auguftus: moifture of climate: drying -houfes : Letter Findley : 
Highland hut: the roof-tree: Highland prejudice: beautiful dunghills: 
Highland living : anecdote : iir-flip candles. 234 

XXII. Extent of Highlands : farming improvements : rural arrangemenfs : rude 

gear: Fort William: a Highland fhovi^er, what: fine weather unwhole- 
fome : Ben Nevis ; cattle fairs : a church-inn : the Cona of Offian : 
horrible maflacre : Macdonald of Glencoe : Appin-hoafe : Oban. 2^ 

XXIII. The Highland charadter elucidated : Highland fenfibility : Highland haugh- 
, tinefs: craft: fidelity: ftirewdnefs : Highlander's notiori of an Englifli- 

man: Highland honefty: anecdote: Highland hofpitality ; courtefy : af- 
fedlion : aftefting anecdote : Highland hardihood : caufes of Highland 
civilization ; Scottiih loyalty : Highland oaths : Highland inns. 255 

XXIV. Highland drefs, ancient and modetn : piety of ancient chieftains : dry 

clothes in wet weather ; a foolifli law repealed ; Highland gentlemen's 
houfes : anecdote : eftablifliment of ancient chieftains : anecdote of a 
haunchman : fecond fight: Dr. Johnfon : witches: animal magnetifm : 
Divine revelation : glamour, or bad -fight : fuperftition : a village feer : 
Highland emigration : old Highland farmers : Highland grazing ; recruit- 
ing fervice in the Highlands : Highlands adapted to manufadlures. 265 

XXV. Sail from Oban : itinerant merchants: a Mull equipage: ftammering po- 

nies: Morven : Mull roads: arrival ^t Ulva : gates: Ulva-houfe: a 
piper: anecdote: mufical boatmen : Ifland of Staffa : Biihop of Derry and 
herdfman : lona. 277 

XXVI. A Deluvian dinner : filheries : kelp: kelp-tfenants: remarks on letting lands 

to kelp-tenants ; on agricultural improvements : on the population of the 
Hebrides : advantages of primogeniture : Hebridian volunteers : food and 
happinefs of the Hebrideans : querns and corn-mills : Hebridean piety : 
wolves : game : coal. 287 

XXVII. Inchtenneth : Lifmore : Loch Awe defcribed : the fick pauper : Inverary- 
caftle: the herring-fifhery : the Crinan Canal; Loch Lomond: Lake of 
Monteith ; the Troflachs ; Killin : a Highland funeral. 295 

XXVIII. Lines to the Caledonian Harp : Loch Tay ; Houfe of Taymouth ! mo- 
numental infcriptions : Duke of Athol's Park: Dunkeld : Athol broze : 
anecdote : a wee bit over the brae : Doune the Lord's anointed : Glaf- 
gow : Argyle-ftreet; Tontine CofFee-houfe : Tolbooth ; Infirmary; Ca- 
thedral; College; Anderfonian Inftitution ; Nelfon's monument; fteam .- 
Theatre; Circuit Court.- remailcs qti cotton - mtHs .• Clyde and water- 
fall? ,■ Rugby School. 303 



TOUR THROUGH SCOTLAND. 



CHAPTER I. 

Tran-'elUHg infatuation — aiiccdite c>r^ -.i Scoicrjuiuu in Italy— —a. consoling 
reflection— Cambridge--~ics bcauiifal coiUgz ^^aiki — the exquisite ar- 
chitecture of kings colkgi: cha.psl — Pembroke college— anecdote cf Mr, 
Pitt — Mr. Fox — a luindo'VJ full cf abfurdities — facetious 'verses — Dr. 
darkens antiques — Stamford — -singular 7node of strengthening a iveak 
building — retnarks upon Tork ininster — hints to dii}ines—-the ca-stle ai 
York— —Durham — -remarks upon the cathedral and the prison. 

HOW common in practice, and yet how inexplicable 
upon principle is it, that we wander from adjacent beauties to 
remote ones, which, after much toil of mind and body, frequent- 
ly prove to be inferior to those we leave behind, which have a 
thousand times courted us in vain both by their attractions and 
their facilities of access ! How often do v/e brave the seas and 
the tempests to draw pleasure from continental resources, and 
how frequently do we learn from foreigners the beauties of our 
own country I Is it that we place a false value upon what is dif- 
ficult of attainment, and feel but little relish for that which can 
be procured with little exertion ? A Scottish gentleman, in whose 
estate a hill, called Mount Damietta, stands, near Stirling, when 
in Italy was expressing to a native of that country the delight 
which the scenery of that beautiful region afforded him, and 
declared it to be the finest in the world. *' It is very fine, un- 
doubtedly," said the Italian, *' but inferior to the one in Scot- 
land ; I mean the view from the hill Damietta, near Stirling." 
The Scottish gentleman was much surprised, and somewhat em- 
barrassed in not being able to make the comparison himself, for 

C 



18 

the truth was, he had never visited the top of his own mount, 
and was ashamed to own it. 

After having felt somewhat of this fashionable infatuation, 
with delicate health, however, to offer in excuse, I resolved upon 
judging for myself of a people and a country long renowned in 
history, and who, in the pages of a writer high in the annals of 
literary fame, appeared with a double character, at one time in- 
viting with attraction, at another repelling with disgust. 

In the pursuit of my object, I had the additional satisfaction 
of reflecting that I had no boisterous seas to cross, and no keen 
and perilous investigations of a hostile police to encounter. 
Having purified my mind from the prejudices which ill-hu- 
moured or sarcastic representations had at various times impres- 
sed upon it, I set off for Scotland ; and as the line of route was 
to me in some degree novel, I loitered a little in my way, to 
contemplate objects that I found not only new, but highly in^ 
teresting. 

I commenced my tour with emotions of gratitude to that be- 
neficent and all-wise Ruler who has hitherto preserved us from 
sharing in the humiliation of so many nations of the earth, and 
who enables, us to wander, as business, pleasure, or the love of 
information may impel, over a country which we may still 
proudly call our own, without being compelled to witness the 
devastations of war, or to contemplate the triumphant march of 
insatiable ambition. 

Seated in an island favoured by Heaven, and fortified by na- 
ture against the political storms that rage around us, we view 
their angry progress, as the astronomer in the calmness of the 
night contemplates the erratic course of the flaming meteor, in 
safe and solemn meditation. 

The delightful month of June had just commenced when I 
left London ; and, after passing through a country which pos- 
sessed very little to gladden the eye or interest the mind, I ar- 
rived at Cambridge, where I had the gratification of being the 
bearer of letters of introduction to several gentlemen, distin- 
guished for their knowledge and extent of research in distant 
countries, and of contemplating many magnificent and venerable 
edifices sacred to learning, along whose walls the Cam slowly 
and silently moves, as if conscious that it flowed through the 
seat of study and meditation, reflecting upon its dark and placid 
surface many a luxuriant bank, and tree of stately growth, har- 
moniously grouped together, and naturally disposing the mind 
ttntamiliarized to the scene, to pensive reflection. 



19 

The groves and gardens of the colleges are equally sweet and 
equally solemn; but they had materially suffered by a recent and 
violent flood, which had overflowed the country to a great ex- 
tent, and had left many rueful marks of its visitation upon tree, 
shrub, bank, and flower. Among the trees, three weeping 
elms are pointed out to the stranger, which cannot be seen 
without admiration. I do not mean to fatigue the reader by ela- 
borate architectural descriptions of the different buildings which 
adorn this celebrated seat of science ; but I cannot pass over un- 
noticed the chapel of King's College, which, for size, lightness, 
and beauty, has no rival in this country, and, I am well inform- 
ed, none in any other. 

In this, as in most pure Gothic buildings, the principal exte- 
rior decorations are reserved for its summits ; but what pencil 
or pen can adequately pourtray the symmetry and beauty of the 
interior of this pile ."* The eye rises with delight from the floor 
to the elegant roof of Gothic arches, springing from their but- 
tresses j it then roves along the " slender shafts of shapely 
stone," finely contrasted with the florid richness of the painted 
windows, and the whole decorated with a profusion of elaborate 
ornaments, varying from each other in form, and rivalling each 
other in beauty. The imagination is more disposed to consider 
this exquisite structure as the fabled temple raised by magic than 
a fabric of human workmanship. It stands a splendid monu- 
ment of the taste, piety, and munificence of Henry VI. its ori- 
ginal founder, and of succeeding sovereigns. The sight of such 
a building would nobly remunerate the pains and perils of a long 
pilgrimage. 

A natural curiosity induced me to pay an early visit to the 
rooms which the illustrious Pitt occupied in Pembroke College, 
where I felt that glow of enthusiasm which departed genius 
never fails to excite in the spot which it has rendered sacred by 
its presence. A Professor, who favoured me with his company 
on the occasion, had the honour of having known that exalted 
character well. He informed me, in opposition to the generally 
credited remark that Mr. Pitt knew but little of Greek, that he 
was thoroughly well versed in that language at the age of four- 
teen, but that he never quoted from any Greek authors in the 
senate, from a well-founded conviction that the only impression 
he would have excited amongst the greater portion of his audi- 
tors would have been that of pedantry. How finely and pow- 
erfully his Latin quotations applied is in the public recollection. 
Iilathematics formed his favourite study, to the pursuit of which, 



20 

lae used to observe, he Intended to return, whenever the cares 
of the s^ate no longer demanded his undivided attention. Al- 
though he shook the senate with thejhunder of his eloquence, 
in private life he was remarkable for his gentle and unassuming 
manners. In the colloquial pleasures of the table he would 
listen with the most patient good humour to great talkers, and 
argue with them as if his mental powers had been but a little 
above their own. He never, like Jupiter conversing with the 
clown, appealed to his thunder. He supported the diffident, 
and played with the overbearing : in short, in the hours of re- 
laxation, he charmed and delighted, as much as, in those which 
"were devoted to the public welfare, he excited the astonishment 
and admiration of the world. 

It is a matter worthy of remark, that scarcely in one instance 
throughout the eventful histories of two of the most illus- 
trious statesmen and orators that ever adorned this or any othe; 
country, is any coincidence to be found, except in the extent and 
brilliancy of their mental powers, and the melancholy fate whicl. 
consigned them together to the common lot of mortality. Even 
in their early studies, whilst Cambridge derives increased cele- 
brity from having the name of Pitt upon her records, Oxford 
may boast with equal pride the lasting honour of having im- 
parted to Fox the treasures of her learning. ' 

The same spirit of (I hope not illaudable) curiosity induced 
zne to explore the apartments which Gray occupied in the same 
college. Strange to remark, no one belonging to it could be 
found to tell me where they were. At last an aged inhabitant 
of the town was sent for, who immediately conducted me to 
them. In one of the rooms of this college there is a medallion 
of Mason.' The Professor I before mentioned remembered 
Gray when at college, and observed, that what principally re- 
mained upon his recollection was his large Aquiline nose, and 
cold inaccessible manner: in the garden belonging to this col- 
lege there is a Gothic bower remaining, though hastening to ra- 
pid decay, which he and Mason planned. It is singular that in 
the common hall there is no portrait of either Gray or Pitt : to 
the memofy of the latter, however, a fine statue is to be erected 
In the senate house, by that able and tasteful artist, NoUekens, 

Under one of the windows in one of the rooms which Gray 
previously occupied at St. Peter's College, there still remains a 
staple, which the Poet, who was very fearful of fire, had fixed 
there, for the purpose of escaping from the danger of that ele- 
ment by a rope ladder, ^n auttientic anecdote is told of a cc':- 



21 

lege trick which was upon this occasion played off upon him, in 
revenge for his general unpleasant deportment and unmanly ti- 
midity. He was one night roused from his slumbers by a loud 
cry of " Fire ;" upon which he immediately affixed his ropeSj 
and descended into a large tub of water, which his roguish com- 
rades had placed under his window to receive him. Thus, 
thinking to escape from one element, he fell into another. In 
consequence of this trick the Bard left St. Peter's for Pembroke. 
In the Chapel of Trinity College there is an exquisite statue 
of the immortal Newton, in white marble, by Roubiliac. The 
great philosopher is represented in a loose gown, with a prism 
in his hands, and his face elevated to Heaven, as if in divine 
meditation. On the pedestal is inserted 

'* QjH genus humanum ingcnio superavit." 

The library of Trinity College is a very noble room, and said 
to contain many valuable books, but it is sadly disfigured by the 
window of painted glass at the south end, representing Sir Isaac 
Newton, who died in 1726, being presented to his present Ma- 
jesty, George the Third, who was born in 1738: the king is 
seated upon a throne, holding a laurel chaplet in one hand, and 
attended by Minerva, whilst below the Lord Chancellor Bacon, 
who died in 1 626, is seen preparing to register the reward which 
the sovereign is about to bestow upon the philosopher, who died 
about twelve years before his royal benefactor existed. The 
execution of this gaudy association of the dead and of tiL.^ living, 
this transparent portrait of absurd anachronisms, corresponds 
with the design. Amongst the MSS. in this library are the Co- 
nius and other poems of Milton, in his own hand, with his al- 
terations. The admirers of the sublime and beautiful in poetry 
may be gratified by seeing a lock of hair of this illustrious bard 
at Lord Fitzwilliam's, at Richmond. 

In the vestibule of the public library are some valuable anti- 
quities, which have been presented to it by Dr. Clarke, a gen- 
tleman equally known for his learning, and the uncommon en- 
terprise and enthusiasm with which he achieved a very ex- 
tensive tour through various distant countries, particularly iti 
Greece, from which, at considerable cost and with infinite ad- 
dress and labour, he contrived to bring the celebrated colossal 
bust of Ceres, exhibiting part of the body, from the girdle up- 
wards, from the temple of Eleusis, and present it to his Alma 
Mater. In raising and embellishing this gorgeous and stupen- 
dous temple, thf roost illustrious artists of Greece are said to 



22 

have exerted their highest energies, until they ieft it a work of 
-iiatchless perfection, at once the admiration and wonder of the 
Avorld. Amongst the hterary treasures collected by Dr. Clarke, 
in the course of his travels, are a Plato, beautifully written on 
vellum, by Professor Porson, styled a monument of literature, 
and other valuable works from Patmos, Naxos, Mount Athos, 
and from Constantinople. The Doctor has also brought some 
antique monuments from Sais, in Egypt, (the ruins of which 
city were first discovered by Messrs. Clarke and Crips), and va- 
rious other antiquities from Upper Egypt, collections of medals 
and vases from all parts of Greece, and sculpture and inscrip- 
tions from the Cimmerian Bosphorus, the Crimea, the shores of 
the Euxine, the Plain of Troy, the Greek Islands, and the Gre- 
cian Continent. The public has been long in expectation of 
seeing in print the researches and observations of this elegant 
and learned traveller, and it is to be hoped that so high a grati- 
fication will not be long delayed. 

After viewing the magnificent edifice devoted to piety or 
learning, the traveller will do well to visit a fabric of a different 
nature ; I mean the gaol, which is small, but admirably design- 
ed and constructed. In the discipline of the prison I saw 
uothing to object to, except an unnecessary weight of irons with 
which an unfortunate delinquent was loaded, and which, the 
gaoler himself acknowledged, were much too ponderous ; but I 
think he added, that they had none lighter. This matter is not 
unworthy the attention of the gentlemen to whom the inspec- 
tion of the prison is entrusted. 

From Cambridge I proceeded to Stamford, through Hunting- 
don. The fens are much drained, and the country was ex- 
tremely pleasant. Stamford, in the number of its churches, 
brought the city of Cologne to my memory, which, as well as 
most of the houses, are built of a fine and hard stone, brought 
from a neighbouring quarry, and with which Downing College 
at Cambridge is to be constructed, when the architect and the 
mason are no longer restrained by the torpid spells of the law. 
Apprehensions having been entertained that St. Mary's Church, 
the handsomest building in the town, was giving way, the in- 
habitants had it cramped up with iron, and by an Hibernian 
mode of proceeding, to make it more secure, have, as I was in- 
formed, suspended in it tivo additional bells. Stamford stands 
apon a rocky soil, so porous, that the inhabitants have only to 
make a cess-pool or deep hole, and every thing thrown into it 
;X!on disappears. Burleigh House and Park adjoin the town, 



23 

and give it the only interest which it possesses. This munifi- 
cent donation of Elizabeth to her favourite minster is well 
known. Compared with his merits, she courteously said it was 
too small. In the noble apartments are many costly and exqui- 
site paintings. On that of our Saviour by Carlo Dolce, so just- 
ly celebrated, I gazed long and ardently, and withdrew with 
emotions of admiration and regret. The divine face seemed 
sufficient to kindle the flame of piety in the breast of the most 
depraved. The new lodge is in bad taste : the towers are sur- 
mounted with domes resembling large full-grown cabbages in- 
verted, which produce an unpleasant effect. 

In my way to York I passed through Doncaster, the elegant 
appearance of which cannot but arrest the attention of the tra- 
veller. York is a great and gloomy city, enriched by one of the 
most grand and beautiful specimens of Gothic architecture in 
the kingdom. For nearly twenty years, the old and decaying 
parts of this beautiful cathedral have been restoring. In this 
very nice and difficult work, an ingenious mason, of the name of 
Shute, has been employed for a considerable length of time. 
What has been done has been creditably done ; but it would 
have been better under professional direction, which is not 
thought necessary. Such is the case at Westminster, and I be- 
lieve at Lincoln. Whilst such a method is used, it is well that 
the cathedral of York is under such excellent government, for 
it might have had a dean* of less taste and judgment, and less 
enthusiasm with regard to purity of style. 

Although no one is more happy to acknowledge the general 
taste as well as the profound learning of our churchmen than I, 
yet I cannot as readily admit that they can be, without the assis- 
tance of a skilful and experienced architect, capable of faithfully 
restoring the delicate *' foliaged tracery" of Gothic architecture, 
by merely modelling and copying different parts of the original 
fabric. To copy with fidelity and effect is an effort of knowledge 
as well as of labour. What mason could copy with truth and 
effect the exquisite productions of Fiaxman and Nollekens ? 
Not the minutest ornament should be I'eplaced, in such vene- 
rable and beautiful piles as I have enumerated, but under the su- 
perintendence of an able artist. The ravages of time upon the 
minster of York will furnish constant employ for the restoring 
hand of art for a century to come. 

* The Rev. Dr. Markham,. 



This august pile has been frequently described. It was com- 
menced in 1171. Its interior corresponds with the majesty of 
its external appearance. The ancient painted windows are oi 
exquisite workmanship^ and at a distance resemble delicate light- 
coloured lace work. As far as the senses are concerned in aid 
of a spirit of devotion, I cannot but think that the pure Gothic 
is the best adapted for that purpose. In this minster, in the 
abbey of Westminster, and in similar buildings, I feel religious 
awe pervade my mind which I never feci in the v.ast and majes- 
tic cathedral of St. Paul. But for the sound of the organ, and 
the voice of the choiristers, it might be regarded as a stupendous 
Pantheon instead of a place of devotion. In the screen are the 
effigies of several of our kings, one of which very whimsically 
presents itself to the eye with red hair gilt, by which the artisr, 
intended to show, that in this prince's reign it was the fashion to 
powder the hair with gold dust. In the library belonging to the 
minster, there is a fine volume, in vellum, containing Erasmus's 
Works. This hbrary is intended to be removed to the chapel, 
which formerly belonged to the archbishop's palace. In this 
city there is an annual display of benignity which I cannot pass 
over in silence j a spirit of liberality, which it would be well for 
the world were it more imitated. A nunnery has been esta- 
blished here for many years, in which there are about one hun- 
dred and thirty young ladies, who are brought up in the Catholic 
religion ; the Lady Abbess pays a yearly visit to his Grace the 
Archbishop of York, by whom she is always most kindly and 
coi'dially received. 

The castle, standing upon an elevated and spacious area ol 
ground, containing the county hall, (a superb building of the 
Ionic order, and the old and new prisons, is higly deserving of 
attentron. The Court of Nisi Prius is formed after the best 
possible plan for hearing and for accommodation, two essentials 
which are not often found in any of our seats of justice. The 
prison for felons is the ancient gaol, which, although inferior to 
modern buildings of this description, is far from being objec- 
tionable. The magistrates deserve the thanks of their county 
for the constant attention which they pay to the discipline of 
this prison, which is in consequence kept very clean ; and the 
unfortunate felons, of whom there were only fifteen when I vi- 
sited it, are enabled by their labour to support themselves tole- 
rably well until delivered by due course of law : humane discre- 
tion is visible here in the weight of the prisoners' chains. Op- 
posite to the county hall, and corresponding with it in front, i-^ 



a noble building, containing the prisons for female felons and 
debtors, hospital, &c. which do great honour to the skill and 
taste of Mr. Carr, the architect. The debtors are also very 
humanely permitted to walk in the area. In the city gaol, I was 
informed by a magistrate, there were no prisoners, although the 
jurisdiction of the city extends over a population of about 25,000 
persons. Another circumstance, equally creditable to the vast 
county of York, deserves to be mentioned. At the last general 
election no accident occurred, and no disturbance arose, although, 
not less than 2-2,000 persons were brought from the country in- 
to the city to vote, and, as far as the fact could be ascertained, 
not one horse was killed from excess of driving. The ancient 
bridge over the Ouse has often attracted the pencil of the art- 
ist j and the ruins of St. Mary are still beautiful, though they 
have been lately much dilapidated, for the sake of the materials. 
The ride to Durham is very pleasant, and frequently pic- 
turesque. This city "derives all its consequence from its enor- 
mous cathedral, (situated in a lofty and well-wooded knoll), the 
windings of the river Wear and its bridges, and the beautiful 
walks which adorn its meanders. In these walks are many elms 
and mountain-ash, of the noblest growth. The houses are in. 
general mean, and far from corresponding with the features I 
have just before mentioned. The cathedral is a vast heavy pile^ 
chiefly of Saxon architecture, a huge quarry above ground, the 
foundation of which was laid in 1093. The size of the interior, 
and the massy magnitude of the pillars, arrayed in all the clumsy 
magnificence of the Norman style, are all that are worthy of no- 
tice within. The castle, or bishop's palace, adjoining, is, like 
the cathedral, very large and gloomy. The rooms within are 
dark and unfurnished. The only object worthy of any notice 
is a curious and highly-embellished Saxon arch, in the long gal- 
lery, which, only a few years since, was discovered behind a 
covering of plaister. Some, but a very small part, of the cas- 
tle, is supposed to be coeval with William the Conqueror. The 
Bishop shews his taste by residing at Bishop Auckland, about 
eleven miles distant, and never entering the gloomy abode but 
when official duty renders it necessary. In one of the cham- 
bers, I am informed, is the coffin of St. Cuthbert, a large chest, 
strongly hooped with iron. As my Cicerone did not mention 
this circumstance, I have done it for the benefit of future tra- 
vellers who are curious in such matters.* 

* The manor of So;kburne, formedy belonging to the Conyers, now in the pof- 
r-JfTion of Sir WiUia:T\ Black^tt. Bart, in the n?i?;hbourhood of Durham, is held by 

D 



26 

The prison Is well calculated to punish the prisoner before his 
guilt is proved : the dungeons, which are below each other, are 
dark, damp, and unwholesome. The ventilators, which ascend 
to the top of the gaol, are choked up. The prisoners sleep upon 
straw ; the common room is small, and badly ventilated j and 
the male prisoners are let out only seven at a time into a small 
yard for exercise, and that only twice a week, which yard is 
close to an inn, and commanded by it. It is additionally painful 
to reflect that the assizes are only held here once a year. The 
keeper of the prison is a humane and respectable man, and much 
regretted that the building was so objectionable. The bride- 
well is in a shocking state. The sleeping-room of the prisoners 
is a great cave under the road, strewed at the bottom with straw, 
like the stables of the robbers in Gil Bias. Into this vault I was 
shown, in mid-day, by the aid of a lanthorn : it was dripping 
with wet on every side. 

knight- fervke under the Bishop of Durham, and by an observance of the following 
lingular ceremony .'—At the first entrance of the Bishop into the country, the Lord 
of Sockburne, or his agent, meets him in the middle of the tees at Neesham, where 
the water is fordable, or at Croft Bridge, when he prefents a falchion to the Bishop, 
as an emblem of his temporal power, and repeats the following words ;— My Lord 
Bifliop, I here prefent you with the falchion wherewith the champion Conyers flew 
the Ivor m, dragon, or fiery-flying ferpent, which deftroyed man, woman, and child, in 
memory of which, the King then reigning, gave him the manor of Sockburne, to hold 
by this tenure, that, upon the firft entrance of every Bishop into the country, this 
falchion should be prefented." The Bishop then takes the falchion in his hand, and 
immediately returns it to the perfon who prefents it, wishing the Lord of Sockburne 
health, and' a long enjoyment of the manor. 

In the ancient pedigree of the family of Conyers it is fet forth, that " Sir John 
Conyers, Knt. who flew the monft'rous vennomous and poyfonous wyvern, afp, or 
worm, which overthrew and devoured many people in fight, and the fcent of the poy- 
fon was fo flrong that no perfon might abide it. and hereby p'vidence of Almighty 
God overthrew it, and it lyeth buried at Sockburne before the Conqueft. But before 
he did enterprjfe, having but one childe, went to the church in complete armour, and 
off^ered up his fonne to the Holy Ghoft, which monuments are yet to fee. Alfo the 
place where the ferpent lay is called Gieyftone." Tradition ftill points to the fpot 
where this mighty worm or dragon was entombed. The ftory, if literally taken, is 
more curious than Angular, in depicting the credulity of diftant times ; but it is 
moft probable that this flying monfter was figuratively used to denote fome great re- 
bellious Lord, who was fuccefsfully refilled by the gallant Conyers. 



27 



CHAPTER II. 

A village of butchers— 'effect of habit-— Ben Johnfon^s riddle— ^Spanish 
pro'verb—NenucaJile— exportation of coals— curious anecdote of a shot- 
tonuer—the 'village of Lemington— Roman pie.ce of plate— Greennjoich- 
hofpital lands— —Hexham abbey— nature pretty equal in her gifts— Nor- 
thumbrian dialect — French language traceable in Northumberlajid—a 
hint to the trujlees of Greenzvich hofpital — Roman ivall—a Northum- 
brian fair — Watlin fireet— anecdote of Simy Dod~—C apheaton—Wal " 
lington houfe — a peel. 

IN the road from Durham to Newcastle-upon-Tyne, I 
passed by Lumley Castle, a noble seat of Lord Scarborough, 
near Chester-le-street, a village which is nearly filled with but- 
chers, who supply the adjoining collieries with meat. The 
spiral smoke of these collieries blackens the atmosphere to a 
great distance, and gives to the surrounding country the appear- 
ance of a collection of volcanos. Between Chester-le-street and 
Newcastle the traveller is carried over a very long and tedious 
hill, exposed and barren, called Gates-head-fell, (from the sum- 
mit of which there is a fine, view of the Tyne), when the road 
might, with the greatest ease, be carried through a beautiful 
vale. Upon this hill most of the grindstones, for which New- 
castle is so famous, are found and manufactured, of which there 
are several depots, resembling so many piles of cheeses. 

How full of accommodation is habit ! a gentleman of New- 
castle, who travelled with me from Durham, observed, that he 
looked upon smoke as good for all disorders, and particularly ef- 
ficacious in rtpelling the plague ; and a gentleman who had a 
considerable property in the marshy part of Lincolnshire, be- 
fore observed to me, that xhtfens were unusually wholesome. 

Newcastle is a large and splendid tov/n, but under a volcanic 
atmosphere, which threw a sombre tint over every object. The, 
inhabitants, I am told, are not conscious of this. The crown- 
like summit of the tower of St. Nicholas is well worthy of no- 
tice. Wallis, in his history of Northumberland, vol. ii. page 
231, thus describes this steeple : — "Four stone images, at full 
** length, adorn each corner of a square tower, out of which 
« rises a curious steeple, in height sixty-four yards, one foot, 
« and three quarters, decorated with thirteen pinnacles, two 



s« bold stone arches, supporting a large and beautiful ianthorn, 
« on which is a tall and stately spire." Ben Johnson, it is sup- 
posed, made the following uncouth x'iddle upon this steeple, pre- 
served in Gray's Chorographia : — 

My altitude high, my body four-scjuare j 

My foot in the grave, my head in the'air ; 

My eyes in my side, five tongues in my v/omb ; 

Thirteen heads upon my body, four images alo;.^- 

I can direct you where the wind doth stay, 

And I tune God's precepts twice a day. 

I am seen where I am not, I am heard v/here I is nnt. 

Tell me now what I am^ and fee that ye m;s5 no:.'' 

The prison of this town has not participated in Its improve- 
rnents. It has no sick room, no chapel. la one small room 
were three felons, two of whom slept in one room, and the 
third under. The debtors were shockingly crowded : the only 
place allowed them for exercise was the leads on the roof. The 
felons have no place to take the air in. A miserable female 
convict some years since attempted to make an escape, by de- 
scending from the battlements (where she was permitted to walk) 
by a cord, which was too weak to sustain her, and she fell into 
a small yard adjoining, and died in cDnse(juence a few days af- 
ter. The assizes are here also held only once a year. It is ji 
matter of surprise, that, in a town so opulent and flourishing, a 
suitable prison should not be erected. It has been long in con- 
templation to build a new one, but the gentlemen of the cor- 
poration should be reminded of the Spanish saying, that 
" Heaven will be filled with those who /jave done good things, 
and the lower regions with those who intended to do them," 

There are several very handsome buildings in this town, par- 
ticularly the theatre, the assembly-rooms, (which were built 
iabout forty years since), and the town-hall, by the quay side, on 
the weather-cock of which a rook used, during many years, to 
build its nest. There are very large glass-works carried on 
here, and manufactories of white and red lead ; there are also 
manufactories of broad and narrow cloths, wrought iron, several 
soap-boileries, and potteries. The grindstones which I have 
mentioned are so frequently shipped from this place, that there 
is a proverb, " that a Scotchman and a Newcastle grindstone 
travel all the world over." 

But its principal exportation is that of coal, the annual amount 
of which from the port of Newcastle, is estimated at four hun- 
dred thousand Neivcastle chaldrons, equal to seven hundred and 



29 

seventy-five thousand London chaldrons,* As I am upon this 
subject, it mzy not be uninteresting to mention that the annual 
importation of this valuable mineral into the port of London, is 
averaged at miie hundred and fifty thousand London ^ chaldrons : 
which, deducting about one-twentieth part, say fifty thousand 
chaldrons, consumed in the counties in the neighbourhood of 
London, forms the annual consumption for London, Westmin- 
ster, Southwark, and the environs, in which about two thousand 
six hundred chaldrons are consumed every day, for the whole 
year, which is doubled in very cold weather. 

At Newcastle there is a patent-shot tower of great height, 
with which the following extraordinary anecdote is connected. 
Some time since it sunk on one side, and was alarmingly out of 
its perpendicular, which it recovered by an enterprising inge- 
nuity of the persons employed, who dug away the earth from 
its opposite and more elevated side, until it recovered its level. 

In the road to Hexham is the village of Lemington, where 
there are several glass-houses for window-glass, and a consider- 
able iron manufactory \ and nearly opposite, on the south side 
of the Tyne, are Smallwell iron-works, which are very extensive. 
In crossing the Tyne at Corbridge I passed by the place where a 
noble piece of silver Roman plate, richly embossed, was found 
some years since, now in the possession of the Duke of Nor- 
thumberland, and which is frequently exhibited upon his Grace's 
sideboard. Above Corbridge, at low water, may be seen the 
remains of a Roman bridge. Roman coins are frequently found 
here, and in the neighbourhood. Near Dilstone, or Devil's 
Stone, are the remains of the ancient seat of the Derwent- 
waters, now in the possession, with the rest of the property of 
that family, of the trustees of Greenwich Hospital. The friend 
and admirer of that magnificent asylum for the support of naval 
valour in its declining days will be happy to hear that the farm 
at Dilstone, comprising about five hundred acres, which about 
twenty years before was let at 500/. per annum, was lately re-let 
for 1,780/. per annum, and that most of the Greenwich-hospital 
estates have risen in proportion. 

Hexham is a considerable town, in which a large manufacture 
of gloves is carried on. The inhabitants appeared to be very 
idle ; and every other house in the town is an alehouse. Co- 
lonel Beaumont has lately repaired and altered the old abbey, 

* Before the laft war, for feveral years, it was nearly 448,000 Newcaflle cha!- 
•5rnns : at which time confiierable cargoes ufed to be annually freighted for Hol- 
Ij.nd, and other parts of the north of Europe. 



30 

which with the rich lead mines, and all the other property now 
in the possession of the Beaumonts in Northumberland and Dur- 
liam, belonged to the family of the Blacketts. Most of the lead 
from the mines is brought to Hexham, and thence sent to the 
smelting-mills in the neighbourhood for extracting the silver. 
The grounds about the abbey have been levelled, to group with, 
the alterations, in consequence of which the bones of many a 
iioly friar have been disturbed. This building is close to the 
church, which unites the Gothic and Saxon architecture ; a 
large and venerable pile. The view from Hexham along the 
vale, over the Tyne, commanding a very handsome bridge, 
through which that beautiful river meanders, with numerous 
sloping gardens on one side, and richly planted woods and ele- 
gant country houses on the other, is extensive and very fine. 

O ! ye dales 
Of Tyne, and ye most ancient woodlands! where, 
Oft as the giant flood obliquely strides. 
And his bands open and his lawns extend. 
Stops short the pleased traveller, to view, 
Presiding o'er the scene, some rustic tow'r. 
Pounded by Norman or by Saxon hands. 

Akenside. 

At Hesleyside, the seat of my friend W. J. Charlton, Esq. 
I was received with great hospitality, and, with him and his 
amiable mother and aunt, renewed in retrospection the scenes 
which, as accident brqught us together, we had visited in vari- 
ous parts of the north of Europe. I leave to those who have 
thus agreeably met abroad and at home to conceive the plea- 
sures of such an interview. This part of Northumberland 
abounds with more charms for the sportsman than for the lover 
of rural nature. But Providence is always equal in the distri- 
bution of its favours, though divided into infinite variety. In 
this bare and rugged soil, the poor peasant may, with very lit- 
tle trouble and as little expense, procure as much coal as he re- 
quires, so that throughout the year the humblest cottage is ren- 
dered comfortable by the blaze of a cheerful fire. For two 
shillings and sixpence he can procure a two-horse cart-load of 
thi«! valuable mineral, which lies horizontally, frequently only 
half a yard below the surface. In the neighbourhood of Hes- 
leyside the Scottish character begins to appear, and the Scottish 
dialect commences. The ear cannot easily encounter sounds 
Enore horrible than those in which the language of the North- 



31 

utnbrians is conveyed when spoken in all its native purity. 
Most of the shepherds speak Scoth, some of the words of 
which are pronounced precisely the same as some words of Ger- 
man, and have the same meaning ; for instance, a shepherd one 
day said to a friend of mine, " the maiden is no blaet," (shy). 
In German it runs thus, " Das madehen is nicht blode." The 
French language is also traceable in the Northumbrian dialect j 
for instance, "Don't fashe (vex) rae^'—facher. " That is a fine 
grozer (gooseberry-bush)" — grosseille, " Pezz" is to weigh up 5 
in French, peser. These and many other French words are sup- 
posed to have been introduced in consequence of the number of 
French persons who accompanied Oueen Mary to Scotland. 
Amongst the provincial expressions, the Northumbrian pea- 
sants say, shearing corn and clipping sheep. 

Offended as the ear may be, the eye is delighted in contem- 
plating the neatness of the peasants' cottages, which are com- 
pactly thatched with heath, there called hcther, and rendered 
impervious to the rain, whilst within every part is clean, and 
on either side of the sprightly fire there is an oven and boiler ; 
the scene of content and comfort reminded me of the consum- 
mation of Frederick's (the Great) wish, that he might live to 
see the time when every one of his poor subjects had a fowl on 
a Sunday, to put in his pot. 

Hesleyside is in the parish of Simonburn, perhaps the most 
extensive parish in England. The living might be made to pro- 
duce about 5000/. per annum. I am informed it is in the gift 
of the trustees of Greenwich Hospital. If my information be 
correct, it would be wise, upon the death of the present in- 
cumbent, to divide it into eight or ten livings, to which chap^ 
lains of men of war ought to be exclusively presented. 

The peasantry are uncouth in manners, faithful, keen, la* 
borious, and thrifty. There are very few of them who cannot 
read, write, and cast accounts. The estates in this county are 
sometimes upon an immense scale, owing to the vast extent of 
moorland. Walnut-trees and poplars do not flourish in this 
county. The principal game with which it abounds is the 
grouse, and the black or grey game (the cock black, and the 
hen grey). On the borders of Scotland, however, the soil is 
rich and highly cultivated, so much so, that a farm which till 
lately let for 80/. was re-let for 343/. per annum, and another 
was raised from 250/. to 915/. per annum. Much of the coun- 
ty has been greatly improved, within these last twenty-five 
years, by draining and planting. Near Hesleyside is Billing- 



32 

ham, a miserable hamlet, filled with petty tradesmen, carriersj 
smugglers, and poachers. The inhabitants have a wild appear- 
ance, and realise considerable sums of money by their lawful as 
well as lawless traffic. 

In a little tour which I made whilst in this part of Northum- 
berland, I passed by part of the celebrated Roman wall, which 
I nad also seen in my way to Hesleyside. We are informed that 
Agricola first suggested the idea of building this stupendous 
wall, by erecting, A. D. 79, a row of forts across the island, 
from Tinmouth, on the German ocean, to the Irish sea, to 
connect which, the Emperor Hadrian, in A, D,. 120, and after- 
wards Severus, in A. D. 207, raised separate wails along the 
same tract of country ; that Hadrian's Vallum appears to have 
been a turf wall, with a deep toss or ditch accompanying it on 
the north side ; that there was another, called by Horsley the 
South Agger, or mound, at the distance of about five paces to 
the south of it, as also another and larger agger on the north 
side of the ditch, supposed to have been the military way to 
this work. These four works, it is observable, keep a constant 
regular parallelism to one another. Upon this wall, which ge- 
nerally runs upon the top or ridge of the higher ground, both 
keeping a descent towards the north or enemy's side, certain 
castles and turrets have been placed. The sounding pipes, said 
to be made from one end to the other, were doubtless fabulous : 
much easier and more certain modes of communication could 
have been made. The wall ran from station to station, till an 
unfordable frith on one side, and a wide and deep river on the 
other, rendered its further extension unnecessary. Many anti- 
quities have been and still continue to be frequently found, viz, 
Roman altars and tombstones, with inscriptions. 

The foss of Severus's wall, running down a pretty steep de- 
scent from Brunton, to the North Tyne, conducts the traveller 
to the curious remains of a Roman bridge, which has anciently 
spanned that river at this place. A great many large square 
stones, with holes in them, wherein iron rivets have been fix- 
ed, but which have been eaten away by rust many ages ago, 
still lie bedded on the spot, and defy the violence of the rapid 
floods. The Roman bridge stood a little to the south of the 
present one at Chollerford, over which I passed. I was present 
at a great scene of Northumbrian festivity at Stagshawbank fair, 
at which, as at the Dutch fairs before the revolution, the high 
and the low from distant parts assemble. The principal charac- 
ters who support the gaiety of the place' were, as usual, pro - 



33 

fessors of salt-box melody, fire-eaters, and keepers of wild 
beasts. • 

In my route from Hesleyside to Chapheaton, the seat of Sir 
John Swinburne, I crossed the Watlin-street, a celebrated Ro- 
man road, which runs through Watlin-street in London to Edin- 
burgh. Upon the surface of the adjoining ground, Roman 
coins are sometimes thrown up by moles. In my way, a very 
mean house, in a dreary waste, was pointed out to me, in which 
a singular character, called Simy Dod, for many years resided, 
and who had lately died after a long life of toil and penury, as 
a shepherd and grazier, leaving behind him a fortune of about 
100,000/. At times he used to shear 50,000 of his own sheep. 
Such is the force of habit, his eldest son, to whom the largest 
share of this property devolved, having been before brought up 
as a herdsman, without shoes or stockings, still continues the 
same pastoral life and attire. Capheaton is the seat and manor 
of the ancient family of the Swinburnes. It is a charming 
place, well wooded about the house, having a considerable lake 
with islands in it. This beautiful piece of water is also render- 
ed extremely gay by a number of little sailing vessels. In the 
grounds are several fine beech-trees, and about four miles of 
walks, kept in the highest neatness. The old part of the house 
was built in 1668, and has upon its front two singular figures, 
representing Mendicity and Hospitality. I spent a short time 
with Sir John and Lady Swinburne, whose mind and manners 
would give attractions to a spot less agreeable than Capheaton. 
Near this place is a lane, called the Silver Lane, so called 
from some Roman sacra and coins having been found there. 

Upon my return I visited Wallington, the seat of my highly 
respected friend John Trevelyan, Esq. This noble mansion was 
the residence of the late Sir Walter Calverly Blackett, Bart, 
whose memory will be long remembered for every quality which 
can adorn a leading character in a large and opulent county. 
The grounds are finely wooded and truly beautiful. The woods 
have been planted about seventy years. The beech, elm, and 
oak, are highly thriving j and the larch are considered to be the 
finest and the largest in the kingdom. The gardens are very 
spacious and well stocked, and contain a great extent of glass 
pineries, vineries, &c. and also a numerous collection of herba- 
ceous and other plants. In a piece of water near the house, I 
saw some beautiful nymphae albse and nymphse lutese, gracefully 
q;rouped with other aquatic plaots, growing in great perfection, 

E 



34 

which the refined taste of the owner has led him to cultivate 
with equal care and judgment. In the house are a fine whole- 
length portrait of Sir W. C. Blackett, by Sir Joshua Reynolds, 
the colours happily in high preservation ; two pictures of the 
Blackett family, by Sir Peter Lely ; a portrait of Mrs. Hudson, 
sister of Sir John Trevelyan, by Gainsborough ; and a portrait 
by Hoppner, of which it may be most justly remarked, that, 
had the beauty pourtrayed in tlae picture been less, it had been 
in that degree less like its amiable and accomplished original, 
Mrs. Trevelyan. There is also a very fine collection of curious 
and valuable china. 

Adjoining to Wallington is the hamlet of Cambo, only wor- 
thy of notice on account of its having given birth to the inge- 
nious Mr. Brown, better known by the appellation of Capability 
Brown. Upon my return to Hesleyside, I saw, in a little ham- 
let not far from the mansion, a vestige of the miserable condi- 
tion to which the Border Country between England and Scotland 
was frequently reduced before the Union, (one of the happiest 
measures that ever occurred for the benefit of both countries), 
in a strong ancient square building, called, in the Border times, 
a peely into which, upon a signal of an approaching Scottish ir- 
ruption, the adjoining farmers and their cattle took refuge. The 
former and their families occupied the upper rooms, and the lat- 
ter were kept below ; and the entrance was secured by a strong 
door, and a massy bolt of oak. There are several such build- 
ings along the borders, remaining as melancholy memorials of 
an age of rapine. At Hesleyside a spur is kept as a curiosity, 
which at that period used to be sent up in the last dish at the ta- 
ble of the chieftain, to denote to his lawless followers that their 
provisions were exhausted, and that they must scour the Border 
Country for more. 



35 



CHAPTER III. 

Dehateable land—^the Shepherds —ferocity of the Ancient borderers— anec- 
dote of Bernard Gilpin — a royal remark upon a conv — 'beautiful ride to 
Jedburgh— -Doctor Johnfon's entrance into Scotland— the Cathedral of 
fedburgh— -Scottish gardeners— ^the little tiofegay girls— —the prifon— 
Eildon hills— Melrofe— remarks upon its architecture— -a lunar mistake— ^ 
the Tiveed — a tra-ueller's first impression of Edinburgh. 

THE imagination can scarcely picture a more dreary 
ride than I had from Hesleysidc to Burness, a distance of near- 
ly twenty miles, although called, in the random reckoning of 
the natives, only twelve. Not a tree or a hut was visible. The 
clouds, which rolled heavily and low, as soon as I ascended this 
desert began to disburthen themselves with the copiousness of a 
shower-bath all the rest of the way. High up in these moun- 
tains of heath, two melancholy drenched shepherds, wrapped 
up in their plaids, and their flocks plucking the scanty blade, 
and shaking off the rain from their fleecy coating, were all of 
animated nature that I saw, save an attendant game-keeper, 
who, having been annually accustomed to spread desolation a- 
mongst the grouse of these mournful and trackless borders, con- 
ducted me through them, by the assistance of remembered 
marks and points of land, to our first stage, as if we had been 
at sea. 

Before the Union, this tract of country was called the Debate- 
able Land, as subject by turns to England and Scotland, and 
was frequently the theatre of many a sanguinary scene. This 
unhappy state of warfare is well described in Home's Doug- 
lass : — 

'• A river here, there an ideal line 
" By tancy drawn, divides the sister kingdoms. 
" On each side dwells a people, similar 
" As twins are to each other, valiant both, 
'* Both for their valour famous through the world j 
" Yet will they not unite their kindred arms, 
" And, if they must have war, wage distant war } 
" But with each other fight in cruel conflict." 

This country was inhabited by a ferocious banditti, trained to 
arms, who lived entirely by plunder on both sides the barrier ; 
and what they plundered on one side they exposed to sale oo 



the other, and thus eluded the arm of justice. So skilful were 
they in robbery, that they could twist a cow's horn, or mark e 
horse, so as its owners could not know it ; and in every other 
lawless manoeuvre their daring craft and ingenuity set the most 
active vigilance at defiance. 

Yet, although in this barbarous state, tliey were not insensi- 
ble to the mollifying influence of religious persuasion, as will be 
proved by the following curious circumstance, which I have ex- 
tracted from the life of Bernard Gilpin, Rector of Houghton- 
le-Spring, in the reigns of the Queens Mary and Elizabeth. 
This excellent man residedsome time on the Border Country, to 
endeavour to civilize the rugged inhabitants, and to impress 
them with the truth of the Christian religion. Qne Sunday 
morning coming to a church in these parts, before the people 
were assembled, he observed a glove hanging up, and was in- 
fornled by the sexton that it was meant as a challenge to anyone 
who sholud take it down.' Mr. Gilpin ordered the sexton to 
reach it him ; but, upon his utterly refusing to touch it, he took 
it down himself, and put it in his bosom. When the people 
were assembled he went into the pulpit, and, before he con- 
cluded his sermon, took occasion to rebuke them severely for 
these inhuman challenges. "I hear," said he, " that one a- 
mong you hath hanged up a glove even in this sacred place, 
threatening to fight any one who taketh it down : see, I have 
taken it down j" and, pulling out the glove, he held it up to the 
congregation ; and then shewed them how unsuitable such sa- 
vage practices were to the profession of Christianity ; using such 
persuasives to mutual love as he thought would rhost affect them. 
So barren was all the Border Country, that a person telling 
king James a surprising story of a cow, ' that had been driven 
from the north of Scotland into the south of England, and, 
escaping from the herd, had found her way home. ** The most 
surprising part of the story," replied the king, " you lay the 
least stress on j that she could live through the Debateable 
Land." ■ 

The inn at Burness is clean and comfortable ; its larder fur- 
nished a tolerable repast, and its library two volumes of the 
Arabian-Nights' Entertainments, and Dr. Johnson's Tour to the 
Hebrides. . I found the learned Doctor was not much admired 
as a tourist by the landlord, who was a Scotchman, and who 
gave me a dreary account of the forced ejectment of the pea- 
santry of the Highlands. Amongst other stories of extreme 
hardship, he related that one hundted and twenty families hsd 



87 

lately been driven from their farms by the military, who were 
called in aid of the operation of the law. Upon inquiry after- 
wards, I found that the statement, as far as related to this mili- 
rary ejectment, was not correct ; and had no doubt been intro- 
duced into the story, to increase the disgust entertained against 
the present mode of merging the small farais into large ones, 
by the lower classes, who generally see with a microscopic eye, 
and who, alive only to immediate feeling, cannot think that any 
future good can atone for present privation. 

My melancholy ride to Burness augmented by contrast, the 
charms of the scenery which opened upon me soon after I re- 
mounted my horse, as a sable frame frequently increases the ef- 
fect of a brilliant picture. After riding over about two miles 
of ground, in v«^hich oats were much cultivated, (a characteris- 
tic feature of an approach to Scotland), I entered Roxburgh- 
shire, the frontier of which, in this direction, is distinguishable 
for picturesque beauty. The road to Jedburgh lay through 
meadows, here of vivid green, there of a rich mossy yellow 
colour J on either side were country seats, handsome planta- 
tions, winding streams, thick woods, and ruddy rocks rising ma- 
jestically above them, crowned with luxuriant shrubs. Evei-y 
object harmonised with its neighbour, and the neatness of the 
humble cottage was blended with the gaiety of the elegant man- 
sion. Each winding of the road exhibited fresh subjects of ad- 
miration. Industry and prosperity shed animation over the 
whole. In all my rambles I never saw nature in a lovelier form 
than she appeared in this ride of fifteen miles. The eastern en- 
trance to Scotland, by the way of Berwick, is, I am told, as 
barren as this is prodigal of beauty. I could not help exclaim- 
ing, *« Is this " Scotland ?" I regretted that Dr. Johnson had 
not entered Calledonia in this direction ; the sweetness and lux- 
uriance of the scene might perchance have mitigated, if they 
would not have entirely charmed away, the severity of preju- 
dices which were conceived and cherished by a long residence 
in the metropolis of England, and which he appears to have 
quitted for the sole purpose of endeavouring to confirm : the 
lateness of season, too, in which he travelled (for the Doctor did 
not commence his tour till the month of August, in 1773), was 
well suited to such an object. 

Jedburgh is a royal borough, and the county town ; it is sur- 
rounded by hills, at the bottom of which flows the river Jed. 
The remains of the cathedral, which unites the Saxon and Go- 
thic architecture, are very fine j part of it is much dilapidated, 



38 

and part has been repaired, and converted into a Presbytery 
church. In other places the same spirit of economy has led the 
plain and unaffected followers of Calvin to perform their simple 
worship amid the mouldering ruins of monastic magnificence. 
King David the first, of Scotland, consecrated his memory by 
richly founding and endowing the monastery of Jedburgh, as 
well as those of the neighbouring towns of Kelso and Melrose. 

It is not possible to conceive any situation more romantic than 
that of Jedburgh ; it is surrounded, and in some parts inter- 
mingled with nurseries, orchards, and gardens, which give it, 
in this respect, very much the resemblance of Upsala, in Swe- 
den. The trees here bear very fine fruit, particularly pears ; 
and in this neighbourhood may be seen the most successful results 
of skilful husbandry. Scotland has great reason to be proud of 
her farmers, who, by that thirst for information and habit 
of reflection peculiar to their countrymen, are enabled to unite 
theory to practice, and to extend the system of rural economy 
to its utmost perfection. It is a curious and an undoubted fact, 
that Scotland preceded England in the cultivation of the garden. 
John Leslie, the Catholic Bishop of Ross, who flourished in the 
year 1560, informs us, in the second edition of his History of 
Scotland, that Glasgow abounded in orchards and herbs ; and 
Anderson, in his History of the Rise and Progress of Com- 
merce, mentions that, in 1509, England could not furnish a 
salad J and that cabbages, carrots, turnips, and other plants and 
roots, were imported from the Netherlands. History tells us 
also, that, till gardeners and various sorts of plants were im- 
ported from foreign countries, one of the Queens of Henry the 
Eighth could not be supplied with salad, and other vegetables 
which she fancied. It is generally believed that the Scottish 
gardeners are superior to the English ; but this, I am well in- 
formed, is not the fact: it is true that the former are better 
educated ; but a Scottish gentleman has an objection to a gar- 
dener of his own country, unless he has been in England some 
years. 

Scottish agriculture is greatly improved within these last twen- 
ty years. Some of the best land close to Jedburgh lets at the 
very high rate of 61. and 11. per acre ; the average rent is 2L 
5s. per acre. Turnips are much cultivated in the neighbour- 
hood, where, as is the case in the borders" towards Hesleyside, 
the rise in the value of land has been astonishing. A respec- 
table farmer informed me, that a farm belonging to the Marquis 
of Lothian, not far from Jedburgh^ v/hich was formerly let for 



39 

226/. was upon the expiration of the lease lately re-let for 
1,010/. and that another rose from 620/. to 680/. per annum. 
The inhabitants derive their principal support from a conside- 
rable woollen and a small stocking manufactory, and bleacheries^ 
The walks near the town are extremely beautiful, particularly 
that which leads to the Steward Field, to which as I was wan- 
dering, I was much pleased with the urbanity of three little 
girls, who were returning to the town, each the proud and mer- 
ry mistress of a large nosegay, or, as it is called in Scotland, " a 
Jlower" and who, unasked, presented me, with the finest rose 
in their possession. I thought myself in the neighbourhood of 
Lyons. These little traits are characteristic of the natural ur- 
banity of a people, and therefore worthy of being noticed in the 
traveller's journal. Upon the banks of the river are shewn the 
vestiges of artificial caves, used as places of concealment during 
the Border wars. 

The prison is over the gateway ; it is small, but clean and 
well ventilated : there were only two male and two. female pri- 
soners in it, a circumstance very honourable to the morals of the 
country. Each prisoner is allowed eightpence per day. The 
objections to this prison are, that there is no yard for exercise, 
and no privies. It is under the superintendence of a provost 
and four baillies. 

I much regret that my arrangements did not admit of my 
going to Kelso, one stage distant, as I was well informed that 
the scenery all the way, and the town itself, are highly beauti- 
ful and interesting. About two miles after leaving Jedburgh, 
the charming meanders of the Tiviot attract the eye of the tra- 
veller ; and, as I passed the park of Sir John Scott, I observed 
some of the finest oak, ash, and elm trees, I ever saw. Lord 
Minto and Admiral Elliot have delightful seats and grounds in 
the neighbourhood. On my left I passed Eildon-hill House, 
apparently in an unfinished state : it was erected by a gentle- 
man who had a lucrative contract for victualling French pri- 
soners. Immediately behind this mansion, the Eildon Hills, 
whose conical tops are seen at a great distance, arise very 
abruptly from a flat corn country. The genius of Walter Scott 
has raised a great portion of this country to the rank of classic 
celebrity : in his Lay of the Last, and as it was well observed, 
the siveetestf Minstrel, he speaks of a wizard, called Michael 
Scott— 



40 

*' That when in Salamanca's cave 
" Him listed his magic wand to wave, 

" The bells would ring in Notie Dame: 
** Some of his skill he taught to me; 
" And, warrior, I could say to thee 
. " The words that cleft Eildon Hills in three,''' 

Canto ii. p, 53. 

Upon the summit of tlie most northerly hills are the vestiges 
of a Roman camp. Melrose is the first stage from Jedburgh to 
Edinburgh ; here the great attraction is the abbey, or abbacy, 
of that name, founded, as before observed, by David the First, 
of Scotland, in 736, and dedicated to the Virgin Mary, and 
long celebrated for the venerable and exquisite beauty of its 
Gothic architecture, which, when time shall have levelled its 
last column with the dust, will excite the interest and admira- 
tion of distant times, in the commemorative lines of, the poet I 
have just quoted, who has an estate and country house in its 
neighbourhood. This abbey is said to have been the largest in 
the island, and its beautiful ruins now measure 948 feet in 
circumference. Melrose has been so often described that it is 
unnecessary for me to attempt that delightful task ; I shall con- 
tent myself with observing, that in elegance of design, in deli- 
cacy of form, and in justness of proportion, it is not surpassed, 
perhaps not equalled, by the remains of any other pile of sacred 
antiquity, in the kingdom. Many of its minuter ornaments, 
representing oak leaves, cabbages, &c. are of the most exqui- 
site workmanship. The eastern window has long been a sub- 
ject of merited eulogy. This abbey in some degree resembles 
York minster, particularly in the buttresses and pinnacles ; in 
its smaller ornaments it is much superior ; it exhibits the finest 
specimen of Gothic architecture and sculpture to be found in 
Scotland. There, as at Jedburgh, the body of the abbey is 
converted into a kirk of Presbyterian worship. 

How creditable to the country and gratifying to the traveller 
would it have been, had the Scottish reformers, when they 
placed their pulpits within the walls of these august remains, 
imbibed some portion of the exquisite taste which raised them, 
and imparted it to their more modern edifices of devotion ! 
Who, without a sigh, can contemplate the blind zeal which 
prostrated to the earth so many stately papal structures ? Who 
will not be thankful to the great but furious hero of the refor- 
mation in Scotland, for wi having laid low the beautiful abbey 
of Melrose? 



41 

This, and many other fine remains, incontestably prove the 
great progress which the Scotch had made in the arts at a very 
early period, and remain as so many monuments of their exalt- 
ed taste and munificence. Walter Scott has so finely described 
the abbey, and has so forcibly told the reader, " Go visit it by 
the pale moon-light," that it is now much the fashion to con- 
template it by the rays of that mild luminary. It is related of 
one enthusiast, whose pressing engagements prevented him 
from devoting more than two hours to the contemplation of 
this venerable object, and who resolved upon minutely follow- 
ing the recommendation of its minstrel, that by a sad mis-cal- 
culation he arrived at Melrose after the last quartering of the 
moon, and was obliged to return without being able to see. 

-^- — the cold light's uiiceri:ain show'')-, 
Stream on the ruin'd central tow'r.'" 

I presume that one reason why the Bard has made this re- 
commendation is, that the building may be more insulated to 
the eye, as its close neighbourhood to the town is a circum- 
stance much to be regretted. The shadows of the night have 
no doubt the effect of detaching it from the profane society of 
the adjoining dwellings, and of giving it the appearance of more 
becoming solitude. 

There is nothing in the town worth seeing. The road to 
the Caledonian capital crossed the Tweed, and lay through a 
rich country generally interesting, and exhibiting high proofs of 
cultivation. This beautiful river opened in the most exquisite 
manner, flowing clear, full, and majestically, through groves of 
fine and venerable wood, lofty craggy hills half-covered with. 
brush-wood, and verdant banks enriched with a variety of flow- 
ers and foliage, and overshadowed by a luxuriant growth of 
timber. The banks of this enchanting stream were the seat of 
the ancient pastoral poesy of Scotland, and have been long dear 
to the Muses. Several noble seats and parks, and the increased 
number and bustle of people and carriages, announced the 
neighbourhood of Edinburgh, which the common people call 
Auld Reikie, reik meaning smoke. 

I have seen a considerable number of cities, but have never 
yet seen one so peculiarly novel and romantic, and very few so 
grand and impressive, as Edinburgh. The morning after my 
arrival, I was conducted to the centre of the Earthen Mound, 
with my back towards the castle, where the contrast of the 

F 



12 ^ 

objects within my view excited at once my astonishment and 
admiration. On my right, upon an elevated ridge, stood the 
Old Town, with its lofty houses, in sombre and sullen majesty j 
on my left the New Town, resembling Bath in the gaiety and 
splendour of its buildings ; below a vast valley, once the bed of 
a Jake ; before me the North Bridge, bestriding this valley, 
and resembling an aqueduct, behind which rise the craggy 
summits of the Calton Hills, and on the side of them stands 
the castellated form of the new bridewell. The imagination 
cannot form such an assemblage of sublime and extraordi- 
nary objects. Nature and art seem to have happily exerted 
their energies in bringing within one view all the varieties 
of their powers. The classical eye has discovered some 
resemblance between Edinburgh and Athens ; the castle has 
been compared with the acropolis, Arthur's Seat with Mons 
Hymettus, and Leith and Leith-walk with the pirseus. If the 
North Loch and Cowgate were filled with water, Edinburgh 
would in a considerable degree resemble Stockholm, which 
stands upon insulated ridges of rock. This romantic city is 
constantly presenting a new picture with the progress of the 
sun, and upon the change of the atmosphere and the season : 
the stupendous and magnificent rock and castle finely grouping 
with every surrounding object. The ancient history of Edin- 
burgh is well known ; and to enumerate the vicissitudes to 
which it has been exposed by the political and holy wars of the 
country is foreign to my purpose. 1 shall only attempt to de- 
lineate those particular objects which engage the attention of 
the traveller, in the order in which I saw them ; in the course 
of which it was my good fortune to be attended by some of the 
most respectable and intelligent persons of that capital, whose 
politeness and information enabled me to examine such objects 
with advantages not enjoyed by every visitor. 

The situation of Edinburgh must be extremely healthy ; it 
is surrounded by hills on all sides, except to the northward, 
where the ground gently slopes to the Frith of Forth. It 
is bounded on the east by the Calton Hills, Arthur's Seat, 
and Salisbury Crags j on the south by the long ridge of the 
Pentland Hills, and the hills of Braid ; and on the west by 
the Costorphine Kill ; all of them objects of great beauty or 
interest. So many lofty mountains, and the opening to the 
north, frequently subject the city to violent, and sometimes 
terrible, storms of wind, by which persons walking in the 
•streets have been often thrown to the ground , the effect how- 



43 

ever, upon the whole, is beneficial to the city, as every narrow 
street and passage is well ventilated. The extent of Edinbvirgh^ 
from east to west, is about two English miles, and from north 
to south about the same distance ; and its circumference about 
eight miles. 

The principal part of the Old Town is raised upon a hill, 
which gradually rises from east to west, where it terminates in 
a rocky precipice of three hundred feet in height, upon the 
summit of which stands the castle, now rendered, by the im- 
provements in modern warfare, fit only for a garrison, though 
once entitled to the character given of it by Burns, in his Ad- 
dress to Edinburgh : — 

'' Tliere watching high the least alarms, 
" Thy rough rude fortress gleams afar ; 

" Like some bold vetVaii, grey in arms, 
" And mark''d with many a seamy scar: 

•* The pond'rous wall and massy bar, 

*' Grim rising o'er the rugged rock, 
" Have oft withstood assailing war, 

" And oft repell'd th' invader''s shock," 



Along the sutumit of this rocky eminence extends a magnifi- 
cent street, rather more than a mile long, commencing from the 
castle, and terminating at the palace of Holyrood-house, called 
in different parts by the several names of Castle-hill, Lawn- 
market, High-street, and Canongate ; other parts of the Old 
Town are built upon the ridges on either side of this hill, and 
on the southern hill is raised the new part of the Old Town, in 
which are several handsome streets, and a mixture of new and 
ancient houses ; this part is connected with the other by a bridge 
of nineteen arches, only one of which appears, called the South 
Bridge, thrown over a valley, now formed into a long, dirty, 
and generally very crowded street, called the Cowgate, the view 
of which from the visible arch, on each side of South Bridge- 
street, is equally unexpected and interesting. Towards the 
North Loph, the houses in the Old Town are of an amazing 
height, having, from their sloping situaticB, three or four more 
stories at the back than in the front- 



44 



CHAPTER IV. 

^he m-jj ionvn— -clerical iinpudence and medical modesiy-'—hcaufiful pro- 
menade—stupendous earthen vicund—humcurcus ohscrijaiicns upon ihs 
moaiiers- — Scottish na7nes—~lhe i^viii brothtn'—Eainiu'i gh tmjrc^jed ir 
cleanliness — -a ivhimsical buildings— 'naked ^wainscots — John Knox^s 
house— Holyrcod- house- — royal heads — the Stuarts end Bourhom—in-, 
teresting portraits— -^leen Mary'' s chamber-— ancient upholster-,', . 

THE Nev/ Tov/n, the great ornament of Edinburgh, h 
built of stone, upon an elevated plain on the north. The sin- 
gular beauty of its situation is equalled only by the graceful ar- 
rangement of its streets, and the splendid assemblage of its 
buildings. Tet, compared with the bustle and population of the 
Old Town, there is a tranquillity in the streets, similar to that 
which is to be fo?jnd in Berlin, and v/hich gives it the appear- 
ance of being thinly inhabited, and an air altogether melancholy. 
George's-street is very fine: the people of Edinburgh think it 
injured by what is whimsically called the impudence of the cler- 
gy, in bringing the church ot St. Andrew so forward, and 
the 7nodesty of the physicians, in placing their hall so far back. 

The east end of this street opens into St. Andrew's square, 
which does ^reat honour to the architect. The rest of the 
principal streets run parallel with each other, nearly a mile in 
length, intersected at right angles, and at pretty nearly equal 
distances, by cross streets, about a quarter of a mile in length. 

The situation of Queen-street, which opens to the north, 
(the fashionable evening promenade), is grand and beautiful be- 
yond description. The eye, enchanted, wanders over parks, 
plantations, and villages, adorning a gradual slope of about two 
iniles to the Frith of Forth, which exhibits a noble expanse of 
water ; its shores decorated with every variety of rural beauty, 
and its bosom embellished with gliding vessels and rocky islets; 
whilst the elevated hills of Fifeshire, and the mountains of 
Perthshire, form a beautiful back-grOund to this magnificent 
scene. In my opinion, it greatly surpasses the view from Rich- 
mond-hill. It is truly delightful to join an evening promenade 
in this street when the sun is shedding his last light upon this 
exquisite prospect, and also shining upon a number of well- 
dressed and beautiful females, who add not a little to the witch- 
ery of the whole. This fine prospect is beginning to be in- 
terrupted by the recent elevation of new streets, and particular- 



4:5 

ly by the houses on a piece of ground, called Heriot's-row. 
The view from Prince's-street, which opens to the south, is of 
a totally different nature ; it commands the vast depth between 
the two towns, called the North Loch, the Castle, the North 
Bridge, and one side of the Old Town, rising in an august and 
solemn manner. In a dark night nothing can be more extra- 
ordinary and original in efrect, than the lights from the windows 
in this part of the Old Town, as seen from Prince's-street. 
This street was till lately the residence of fashion ; but such 
is the increasing opulence of the city, that most of the houses 
are either occupied or taken by shopkeepers of respectabiHty. 

An easy communication is preserved between the two towns by 
the North Bridge before mentioned, which is 1,125 feet long, 
from Prince's-street to the High-street ; the height of its great 
arches, from the top of the parapet to the base, being 68 feet ; 
and also by the Earthen Mound, which is about 800 feet long, 
92 feet high at the south end, and 58 at the north. Thi? 
mound was commenced in 1783, owing to a petty tradesmari, 
named George Boyd, who lived in the Old Town, having pre- 
vailed upon some of his neighbours to join him in the expense 
of constructing a little causeway, for their convenience in visit- 
ing the New Town, instead of going round by the North 
Bridge. This simple and rude communication induced the ma- 
gistrates to grant permission to the builders of the New Town to 
deposit their earth and rubbish in this spot, by which this stu- 
pendous undertaking has been effected. It is calculated, that, 
at an average, eighteen hundred cart-loads of earth were de- 
posited there every day, for a period which brings the total a- 
mount of earth to one million three hundred and fifry thousand 
cart-loads. Thus was this immense mound produced without 
any other expense to the magistrates than that of spreading the 
earth. A stone wall, with openings at intervals, has been lately 
raised upon it, to protect the passengers from the furious gusts 
of wind so frequently prevalent here. 

The number of handsome hotels were amongst the early ob- 
jects of my admiration. Some of them are as splendid as any 
in London, and pi;ove the rapid advance which Edinburgh has 
made in refinement. The rooms are elegantly furnished, and 
the servants tolerably clean and very attentive. Not many years 
since, the inns afforded the most wretched accommodations, and 
the waiters were so filthy that it was whimsically said of them, 
that if you were to throw one of them against the wall, he 
would stick there. Indeed, so late as the year 1768, a stranger 



46' 

coming to Edinburgh was obliged to put up at a filthy execrable 
inn, or bad private lodging. The word hotel was then only 
knovm to those who understood French or old English : but the 
Caledonian, like the English capital, has experienced great 
-changes for the better. 

The house which the Duke of Douglas inhabited at the Union 
in the year 1792, was occupied by a wheelwright \ the house of 
the great Marquis of Argyle, on the Castle-hill, was possessed 
by a hosier ; Lord Dunmore's house was left by a chairman, for. 
want of accommodation; and, amongst other vicissitudes to 
which the great and the little are subject, I was struck with the 
palace of the present Duke of Queensbpry having been con- 
verted into, and now used as a venereal hospital. In 1786, the 
areas for building shops and houses on the east and west side of 
the bridge, to the south over the Cowgate-street, sold higher, it 
is conjectured, than ground ever sold in any city. 

Many of the best houses have a common door and staircase 
leading to the different stories above, as well as an ordinary 
street-door; and bells are almost universally and most judicious- 
ly substituted for knockers. Upon many of the doors, not only 
the names, but the places of abode of the occupiers, are affixed 
to prevent the confusion which would arise from there being so 
many of the same name. I was informed that there are in one 
quarter of the city two brothers, living near each other, who 
are twins •, and as they have two other brothers, they are desig- 
nated on their doors as tertius and quartus ; but, notwithstanding 
this precaution, they are so amazingly like each other, that 
even their own tenants frequently mistake them. 

Upon his arrival in the Caledonian capital, an English stran- 
ger is at first surprised at the following definitions. A square is 
called scale-stair — a round stair, a turnpike — a court is often 
called a square. The Parliament-house is an exception — its site 
is sometimes called a close — sometimes a square. Now, proper- 
ly, a close is a narrow lane ; and a wynd, one of broader di- 
mensions, which might allow a cart to pass. The same stranger 
might be disposed to think the lower Scotch never moved but 
by the compass. If he were in South Bridge-street, and to ask 
a Scotchman of the humbler sort his way to St. Andrew's-square, 
it is ten to one but the answer would be, '•'Why you must keep 
straight northv/ard, till you reach the register-office, then turn 
to the westward, and the second turning to the northward a- 
gain will tak' e to it." The streets are well paved, and kept to- 
lerably clean. 



47 

Report has long been unfavourable to the cleanliness of the 
ancient part of the Caledonian capital, and I believe most justly 
so. Many travellers have mentioned with lively disgust the 
evening hour, when omnium versaiur urnd. It must have im- 
pressed the mind of a stranger with astonishment, that a people 
so eminently enlightened should have been so long ignorant of 
habits, which, it might be fairly expected, would have been 
adopted by a country in the first stage of ifs refinement. It is 
therefore with great pleasure that I mention, that the police, 
having turned its attention to a subject of so much consequence 
has succeeded in doing all that the construction of the houses 
in this part of the city will admit. The stranger, in his evening 
rambles, is now no longer subject to a warning from many a 
window, which is at length become an almost proverbial joke, 
and to the most disagreeable consequences of non-obedience to 
that warning. At a very early hour every morning the dirt is 
removed by carts, which are engaged for the purpose, and the 
winds soon purify the streets. A spirit of improvement in this' 
sort of accommodation has lately very whimsically displayed it- 
self at the inn of Alnwick, in Northuberland, where there is a 
circular commoditiy with three elbow seats. 

Upon entering many of the houses {and those of respectabi- 
lity) in Edinburgh, and, as I afterwards found, in other parts of 
Scotland, an English eye will be in sorne degree offended by the 
cheerless and uncomfortable appearance of naked wainscots, 
which have never been painted. Wainscots will rot in less time 
with paint, than without, and perhaps the Caledonian prefer- 
ence in this particular, may arise from philosophical economy. 
Very soon after my arrival at the capital, I had the pleasure of 
taking several evening walks to St. Bernard's Weil, about half a 
mile from the capital. The well contains a spring of mineral 
water, mineralised, as I was informed by a chemist, by sulphu- 
rated hydrogenous gas ; over this well Lord Gardenstone has 
erected a handsome Grecian edifice, in imitation of Cybele's 
Temple at Tivoli. The public has access to the water, on pay- 
ing a trifling remuneration to the person appointed to preside 
over it. As far as I could learn, under the influence of fashion, 
who reigns with undisputed authority from one end of the 
island to the other, the temple is not so much resorted to now 
as it was formerly. The verdapt banks, decorated grounds, 
elegant villas, the shallow rocky bed of the river, and the little 
woods which embellish this favourite evening walk, are all very 
beautiful. Near tlie temple, a little to the v'estward, are the 



48 

great mills, Vhere the bakers of Edinburgh have their corn 
ground. 

The interesting history of Queen Mary of Scotland naturally 
hastens the steps of the traveller to visit the place where she 
resided, in which to this day so many vestiges illustrative of her 
habits and life, leniently touched by the hand of time, still re- 
main. In going to Holyrood-house, I passed by one of the old- 
est stone houses in Edinburgh, that in which John Knox re- 
sided, which projects considerably into the High street. I was 
shewn a window, from which, tradition says, this extraordinary 
man, whose robust genius was so well suited to the turbulence 
of the times in which he lived, used to harangue the people, and 
pour out his anathemas against popery. Near this window is a 
figure in alto relievo, pointing to a radiated stone, on which is 
sculptured the name of the Deity, in Greek, Latin, and En- 
glish. Opposite to this house, in the front wall of a house, are 
two very fine heads in alto relievo, supposed to be of Roman 
sculpture, and likenesses of Severus and his consort Julia. Of 
the origin of these heads nothing seems decidedly known. 
There is the following ancient inscription under the,m, supposed 
to have been placed there by a baker, over v/hose shop they 
once were : — 

" In siidore vultus tui, vesceris panem. Anno—'' 
*< In the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread." 

Gen. iij. 19. 

After the celebration of Mass in the great chamber of Holy- 
rood-house, I joined sonie of my friends there, and inspected 
this venerable seat of royalty, which stands at the eastern ex- 
tremity of the city, at the bottom of that part of the High- 
street called the Canongate. This great room or gallery is on 
the north side of the building, is one hundred and fifty feet 
long and twenty-seven broad, and about eighteen high •, and is 
decorated, or rather disfigured, by the portraits of one hundred 
and eleven monarchs of Scotland, whose respective reigns 
would fill up about two thousand years. How faithful these 
portraits are the reader may judge when he is informed that they 
are all by one master, whose name I do not regret to have for- 
gotten, and that it is said a common porter sat for every one of 
these anointed heads. Such a miserable collection of trash I 
never saw but at the stall of some petty broker. They not only 
offend the eye, but augment the gloom of the room, and are al- 
together disgraceful to the building. Many of these execrable 



49 

iifoductloris were defaced by the English soldiers, under General 
Hawley, after the defeat of the royal army at Falkirk, when 
quartered there in the year lY^S ; some have censured them 
for pettishly exhibiting their disinclination to the Scottish mo - 
narchs by the disfiguration ; I blame them for not having boiled 
their kettles with them. This long and ugly room is used as a 
chapel for his Royal Highness Count D'Artois, and the nobility 
and their followers attached to him and the prostrate fortunes of 
his family, who are permitted, by the magnanimity pf the 
country, to occupy the apartments in the east part and south 
wing of the palace. 

To the unfortunate Count It has proved an asylum from his 
numerous creditors. What singular, events occur in the history 
of princes, as well as of humble beings. The fugitive family 
of the last king of France find a sanctuary in the palace of the 
Stuarts, iifh.0, in their misery and exile, received consolation and 
support from the house of the Boilrbons. 

In one of the apartments of the Count, which, as well as the 
others, is wainscotted with oak, are portraits of her Royal 
Highness the Duchesse d* Angouleme, the last Dauphinesse, 
■whose countenance very much resembles, in noble frankness, 
that of the unfortunate king her father ; another of Madame 
Elizabeth -, both well executed ; aiid, I was informed by a 
French gentleman belonging to the Kousehold of the Count, 
very like the originals. There is also a copy, in oils, of Ver- 
fset, by Madame Elizabeth, valuable only as the production of 
so illustrious and persecuted a personage. There is very little, 
except a portrait of Charles the First and his Oueen, and two 
pictures of their present Majesties, by Ramsay, capable by their* 
attraction of detaining the visiter from the apartments of Queen 
Mary, which cannot fail of exciting the deepest interest, and of 
awakening many tender emotions- Her chamber is on the se- 
cond floor. In which her bed and the furniture of the room re- 
main as she left them. The bed of crimson damask, bordered 
with green silk fringes and tassels ; and the cornice of the bed 
is of open figured work, and, colisidering its antiquity, in good 
preservation. Behind the hangings of this room, in part folded 
back, is the door of a passage leading to the apartments under- 
Beath. Through this door, it is said, Lord Darnley and the 
conspirators entered on the 9th of March, 1 566y and effected 
the murder of Rizzio. The closet in which this sanguinary 
transaction took place, is in the north-west tower of the palace, 
and about twelve feet square, and opens into Mary's chambeia 

G 



50 

^ho was supping with trie Countess of Argyle and the ill-staf-* 
ed Italian when the assassins dragged him away, (although he 
clung to his royal patroness for protection), and butchered him 
in the adjoining chamber of presence, upon the floor of which 
some brown spots are shown, as the blood of the murdered mu- 
sician. It xTjay be just possible that this is not an attempt to im- 
pose upon the credulous, as I am informed that the stain of 
blood on timber is indelible. The chairs in the chamber are of 
singular construction, with very high sloping backs j and, how- 
ever the taste of the present day might shudder to see them in a 
drawing-room, they are more truly comfortable than any I have 
ever sat in, though enriched with all the embelHshments of 
modern upholstery. There are some pictures in this and the 
adjoining apartments, interesting only on account of their sub- 
jeels. 



CHAPTER V. 

Character cf^neen Mary--^anecdote of a true courtier-^cunte7npttble jea- 
lousy of ^.een Elizabeth-— a parody — royal 'verses — Mary's first En- 
glish letter^— the chapel— -Arthur' s seat — a mutiny — superb prospect--^ 
Hume's monument—the Brides-well'— the register -ofiice — the batik — siri' 
gular circumstance— Roslin Castled—sermons in stones— Jngels and 
Bagpipes. 

THE character of Mary has furnished matter for con- 
troversy for now upwards of two hundred years to many able 
writers ; by those who have espoused her cause she has been de- 
picted as a suffering saint j by her enemies as an angel of dark- 
ness. The truth may perhaps be found between : that she was 
not so spotless as the former, nor so criminal as the latter, have 
represented her to have been, is the most reconcileable to the 
various accounts transmitted of her. Bred up in a Court dis- 
tinguished for its splendour and its levity, formed by the pro- 
digal hand of nature to captivate all who approached her, and 
of a warm constitution, the unhappy Mary was exposed to 



51 

scenes that were hateful to her feelings, and to temptations too 
powerful for her judgment and resolution. 

She was eminently accomplished. At an early age she ob- 
tained such proficiency in the Latin language, that she declaim- 
ed in that tongue, publicly, in the hall of the Louvre, before 
the whole court of France ■, and, in an oration composed by 
herself, maintained that learning and the liberal arts were com- 
patible with the female character. Of the French, Italian, and 
Spanish languages, she was also a complete mistress. She play- 
ed, danced, and rode, to admiration. She also excelled in 
painting and needlework. 

The following anecdote, from the Memoirs of Sir James 
Melville, who appears to have been a most consummate courtier 
and sycophant, will illustrate a little of the paltry mind of the 
jealous and sanguinary Queen Elizabeth, as well as exhibit his 
royal mistress, Queen Mary, in no unfavourable colours. Sir 
James was sent to the court of Elizabeth by Mary, as ambassa- 
dor, to conciliate the English Queen, who was much offended 
, with the conduct of Mary. The negotiator, having brought 
Elizabeth into good humour by his address, relates the sequel of 
that interview to have been as follows j *' The Queen desired to 
know of me what colour of hair was reputed best, and whether 
my Queen's hair or her's was best, and which of them two was 
fairest ? I answered, the fairness of them both was not their 
worst faults. But she was earnest with me to declare which of 
them I judged fairest. I said she was the fairest Queen in En- 
gland J mine the fairest Queen in Scotland. Yet she appeared 
earnest. I answered, they were both the fairest ladies in their 
countries ; that her majesty was whiter, but my Queen was very 
lovely. She inquired which of them was of highest stature ? I 
said, my Queen. Then, said she, she is too high, for I myself 
am neither too high nor too low. Then she asked what kind of 
exercise she used ? I answered, that when I received my des- 
patch the Queen was lately come from the Highland hunting i 
that, when her more serious affairs permitted, she was taken up 
with reading of histories ; that sometimes she recreated herself 
with playing upon the lute and virginals. She asked if she play- 
ed well ? I said, reasonably, for a Queen." This passed be- 
fore dinner, and Sir James, who was asked to dine at court 
with one of the ladies, was taken after dinner by Lord Huns- 
dean, who undoubtedly was instructed so to do by the Queen, to 
a quiet gallery, "that I might hear," continues Sir James, 
" some music ; but he said he durst not avow it, where I might 



hear the Queen play upon the virginals. After I had hearken- 
ed awhile, I took by the tapestry that hung before the door oi 
the chamber-, ahd stood a pretty space, hearing her play excel- 
lently well : but she left off immediately as soon as she turned 
her about and saw me. She appeared surprised, and Oame for- 
ward, seeming to strike me with her hand, saying she was not 
accustomed to play before men, but when she was solitary, to 
shun melancholy. She asked me how I came there ? I an- 
jswered, as I was walking with riiy Lord of Hunsdean, as we 
passed by the charriber dOor, I heard such melody as ravished 
me, whereby I was drawn in ere I knew how, excusing my 
homeliness, as being brought up in the court of France, where mueh 
freedom was allowed, declaring myself willing to endure what 
kind of punishment her majesty should be pleased to inflict up- 
on rne for so great an offence. Then she sat down upon' a 
cushion, and I upon my knees by her, but, with her own hand 
she gave rne a cushion to lay under my knee, which at first I 
refused, but she compelled me to take it. She inquired wheth- 
er my Queen or she played best.'' In that I found myself, 
obliged to give her the praise. On my pressing earnestly my 
despatch, she said I was weary sooner of her company than she 
was of mine. I told her majesty, that though I had no reason 
of being weary, I knew my mistress's affairs called me home. 
Yet I staid two days longer, that I might see her dance ; which 
being over, she inquired of me whether she or my Queen dan- 
ced best ? I answered, "my Queen danced not so high or dis- 
posedly as she did." 

Mary was so beautiful, that it is said, when she was walking 
in the procession of the Host, a woman rushed through the 
crowd to touch her, to convince herself that she was not an 
angel. 

In the Scottish College at Paris were deposited several manu- 
scripts relating to the unfortunate Mary, which, in all probabi- 
lity, have been destroyed during the French revolution, with 
many other valuable documents. 

It is said that when the celebrated David Hume last visited 
that city, the Principal shewed him some of these important 
manuscripts, and asked why he had written so unfavourably of 
the Queen, without having previously consulted them ? The 
Principal then put some original letters into his hand, upon 
reading which the historian burst into tears. Mary, in her 
opinion of her own sex, seems to have materially differed from 
Selden, who^ in his table-talk, observes, "That men are not; 



Do 

troubled to hear men dispraised, because they know that, 
though one be naught, there is still worth in others j but women 
are mightily troubled to hear any of themselves spoken against, 
as if the sex itself were guilty of some unworthiness •," for when 
one of the Cecil family, a minister to Scotland from England, 
in Mary's reign, was speaking of the wisdom of his Sovereign, 
Queen Elizabeth, Mary stopped hifn short by saying, "Seig- 
neur Chevalier, ne me parlez jamais de la sagesse d'une femme ; 
je connois bien mon sexe, la plus sage de' nous toutes n'est qu'un 
peu moins sotte que les autres." 

How well Mary understood Latin will appear from the fol- 
lowing impromptu, which she wrote in her way to Fotheringay 
Castle, when within the power of her savage rival. Stopping 
for a few hours at Buxton, with her diamond ring she wrote 
pn a pane of glass at the inn where she halted, 

Buxtona, qua" cal Idas celebiaris nomine lymphae. 
Forte mihi posthac non adeunda, vale ! . 

How sweet a poet she was will also appear from the following 
affecting verses, which she wrote, as she saw for the last time 
the coast of France, when she was coming over to Scotland, 
and which seem prophetic of her future misery. 

Adieu, plalsant pa}'s de France I 

O ma patrie 

La plus cherie, 
Q£i as nourri ma jeune enfance ; 
Adieu, France ! adieu nos beaux jours . 
La nef qui dejoint nos amours, 
N'a eu de moi que lamoitie ; 
(Jne partie te reste, elle est tienne j 
Je la fie a ton amitie, 
Pour que de i'autre il te souvienn^ 

For the gratification of the reader curious in such matters, I 
am indebted to a literary friend in Scotland for the following 
copy of the first letter which this unhappy Princess ever wrote 
in English :— 

*' Master Knoleis, yhauu bar sum news from Scotland, ysendzoutoda 
the double of them. Y wreit to the Quin my gud sister, and pray zou to do 
the lyk conforme to that y spak zesternicht unto zou, and sut hasti ansur 
y refer all to zour discretion, and will lipne beter in zour gud dalin for me 
nor y con persuad zou nemli in this langasg excus mi ivel wretein, for y 
nevvfr used it afor, and am hasted zs scjial si mi bel whiulk is opne it is 



sed Saterday mi inifr irKJs wil be vth zcu y sey iiotliirig but trast well, and «e 
send one to zour wifF zo may asur her schu v/ald a bin wellcome to a pur 
stranger liua nocht bleu acquainted with her wil notch bi over bald to wreit 
bot for the aquantans betwix ous, y wil send zou litle tokne to reraberzou 
of the gud hop y haiiu in zou qnes ze send a met messager y wald wysh ze 
bestouded it reder upon, her nor ain uder, thus after my commeiTdations y 
piey God hauu zou in his kipin. 

Your asurede gud frind, 

MARIE R. 
Excus my ivel wretein the furst time, 

James the Fifth, the fiither of Mary, when he was dying at 
Falkland, of a broken heart, on account of the miscarriage at 
Sohvay Moss, predicted the disasters that impended over her 
and Scotland. ' " It came," said he, "with a woman," (alluding 
to the family of Stuart having obtained the crown by marrying 
:nto the faiaiiy of Bruce), " and it will be lost by one." To 
return to Hoiyrood-paiace. This palace is of a square form. 
The western or principal front is heavy and gloomy, consisting 
of two double towers, connected by a' gallery, surrounded by a 
ballustradc, in the middle of which is a handsome portico, a- 
dorned with four Doric columns, which support a cupola in 
the form of an imperial crown, under which is a clock, and over 
the gateway are the royal arms of Scotland, as borne before the 
Union. The front to the east is very light and elegant ; it con- 
sists of three stories , between the windows of the first are 
pilasters of the Doric order ; between those of the second, pi- 
lasters of the Ionic ; and between those of the third are an 
equal number of the Corinthian. The greater part of the pre- 
sent palace was designed by Sir William Bruce, a distinguish- 
ed architect in the reign of Charles II. executed by Robert 
Myine, who has a monument erected to his memory in the bury- 
ing-ground of the ancient monastery adjoining. 

Close to the palace stand the remains of the chapel or church 
of Holyrood-house, the last relict of the wealthy abbey of that 
n^m'je. From the appearance of the ruins, the observer cannot 
fail to conclude that the chapel must have been a beautiful spe- 
cimen of the Gothic architecture. James II. of England, re- 
paired and fitted it up. with considerable taste and splendour 5 
a throne was erected for the Sovereign, twelve stalls for the 
Knights of the Order of the Thistle, and an organ j and Mass 
was performed with great solemnity, a celebration which in- 
duced the people, at the Revolution, in their fury against po- 
pery, to spoil it of all its ornaments, and to leave it a naked 
pile : with the same sacrilegious rage which characterised the 



55 

6arly phrensy of the French Revohition, they tore open the 
graves of the 'royal and ilUistrious dead interred within its wails. 

The reader will be as vexed to hear as I am to report, that 
this beautiful building owes its ruin more to the ignorance of an 
architect than to the barbarous zeal of an infuriated mob. At 
the instance of the Duke of Hamilton, the hereditary Keeper of 
the Palace, the Barons of the Exchequer issued a sum of mo- 
.ney for repairing it ; the walls were infirm with the age of six 
hundred years, and, instead of raising a slight roof, the sapient 
architect formed a massy one of flag-stones, which fell in on the 
2d of December, 1788. The great eastern Gothic window fell 
80 recently as in the severe winter of 1795. The belfry at the 
west end is tolerably entire. The remains of Lord Belhaven, 
who opposed the Union of the tvi?o kingdoms in a very eloquent, 
and, at the time, a much-celebrated speech, were inter- 
red within the roofless walls of the chapel. The environs of 
the palace are a sanctuary for insolvent debtors. That a pile 
of buildings should be capable of extending protection to any 
one against the just claims of the suffering creditor, that it 
should erect a barrier against the law, is disgraceful to the go- 
%'ernment in which such privileges are permitted to exist. 

Adjoining to the palace is an extensive park, the appearance 
of which v/ould naturally confirm an Englishman, especially had 
he entered Scotland by Berwick, in the suspicions which he had 
been taught to entertain of the luxuriance of Scottish foliage ; 
for scarcely is there the vestige of a tree to be fottnd throughout 
this extensive park. The whole is brown and barren, and ac- 
cords with the rugged, but magnificent, rocks and craggy hills, 
to which it leads in various directions. To the southward of the 
palace ascends with uncommon majesty a semicircular range of 
precipitous rocks, called Salisbury Crags, which immediately 
overlooks the city ; and behind, with intervals of fertile valleys, 
rises the loftiest of these hills, called Arthur's Seat, the height 
of which is 796 feet above the level of the sea. I ascended it 
twice, and was amply remunerated for the toil and trouble of 
reaching its summit, upon which the following rather singular 
circumstance occurred in 1778. Government having deter- 
mined to send the Earlof Sea forth's Highland regiment to India, 
without consulting the inclinations of the soldiers, and arrears 
of pay being due to them, they determined upon resisting the 
commands of their officers ; and accordingly, one morning, 
when the regiment was at drill, the whole battalion shouldered 
their arms, and took possession of Arthur's Seat, the summit of 



5^ 

which they made their head-quarters, from which they ahke 
defied the threats and promises of their officers. At length an 
accommodation was agreed upon, through the address of the 
Lords Dunmore and Macdonald, two noblemen who were very 
popular with the Highlanders, and the mutineers returned to 
their duty, and embarked for their destination. 

The view from this astonishing hill is truly superb. The 
eye ranges over the metropolis, the Germaii Ocean, the course 
of the Forth, a richly cultivated and populous extent of country, 
to the vast mountains of Benledi and Benlomond, until the 
Lawmonds, otherwise Wallace Markers, preclude all further 
view. The botanist and mineralogist will find ample subject? 
for investigation in these hills. About four hundred species of 
plants, both aquatic and a!pine> and of ail intermediate sorts, 
have been discovered in them. Arthur's seat, and the adjacent 
rocks, are composed of whin-stone, which is used for paving the 
streets of Edinburgh, and the summits are supported by hex- 
agonal pillars, somewhat basaltic. 

At the foot of the greater hills are the ruins of the chapel 
and hermitage of St. Anthony, the whole of which must have 
been a very small establishment. The history of the chapel is 
very little known. The fraternity of St. Anthony had a mo- 
nastery at Leith, supposed to be the only house of the order in 
Scotland. The brethren must have been fond of the rugged 
and sublime, to have erected their holy abode in such a spot. 

To the north-west of the palace is the Calton Hill, a rocky 
eminence, commanding also magnificent prospects : nearly the 
whole of the city may be viewed from it ; the town of Leith, 
the Frith of Forth, with its numerous shipping, the Isle of 
May, and the Bass Rock, and much of the scenery visible from 
Arthur's Seat. On the western side of the hill is the Calton 
burying-ground, in which, amongst other mausoleums, is one 
in the shape of a Martello tower, in which the remains of the 
celebrated David Hume are deposited, and which is visible 
from a great part of the city. Upon the summit of this hill a 
signal-house is erected, and it is in contemplation to raise the 
Ipng-talked of monument to Nelson in the same elevated spot. 
On the western side of this hill also stands the bridewell, a 
building the best adapted to its purpose of any! have ever seen. 
It was finished in 1796, from a design of the late justly-dis- 
tinguished Mr. Robert Adam. It is a strong stone building, in 
the form of the letter D ; the whole is surrounded by a wall', 
between which, and the prison there '^ an area. It consists of 



57 

five floors ; the upper one is used as an hospital and store-rooms. 
A passage passes along the middle of the semicircular part of 
the building, with apartments on either side. Those towards 
the outside are used as dormitories, and those on the inner side 
of the semicircle, of which there are thirteen in each story, 
have an iron railing in front, and look into the inner court, 
which is roofed and glazed, and lights the whole. Every part 
is composed of stone or iron, except the doors. The bed- 
chambers, which are each about eight feet long by seven broad^ 
and furnished with a bed on an iron frame, and a table, are 
lighted by a long narrow window, the glass of which is fixed 
in a frame of iron, and turns upon the centre. Upon the top 
of the house are large cisterns, which supply every part of it 
with water. In the entrance of the Governor's house is a dark 
apartment, with high narrow windows, which commands every 
cell, and enables the proper oiEcers to see whether the crimi- 
nals are at work, without being observed by them. From this 
point of view, the interior resembles an aviary in form, and lights 
ness of construction. The women spm, and the men pick 
oakum : they are never permitted to hold any communication 
with each other, and they are not allowed to take any exercise 
but what their work affords. In summer they work from six 
la the morning till eight in the evening, and in the winter 
from sun-rise to sun-set. The prisoners wear a prison dress, 
and their own is cleaned and preserved for them until the ex- 
piration of their confinement. . I visited the kitchen, with 
which, as with every other part, I was highly gratified, on ac- 
count of its arrangement and perfect cleanliness. The break- 
fast and supper of the prisoners is oatmeal-porridge and small 
beer, and their dinner, broth, made of fat and vegetables ; and 
those who perform more than their task-work are allowed bread 
to their broth, purchased by the produce of the surplus of their 
labour, and a larger portion of porridge. On Sundays they 
have a portion of meat. The whole institution is under the 
careful inspection of the magistrates and the sheriff of the coun- 
ty, whose visits are frequent and regular. As a proof of the 
salubrity of the prison, and of the excellence of its 'discipline, I 
§m informed by one of the principal magistrates of Edinburgh, 
that, although it has been used twelve years, during which it 
has constantly had, upon an average, not less than fifty persons 
confined in it, only four deaths have occurred in that period j 
and it is to be remembered, that many of the vicious of both 
sexes sent there, frequently enter it in a state of extreme debiU- 

H 



58 

ty or disease, the fruits of a profligate course of life. This pri- 
son also affords protection to unfortunate females labouring un- 
der disease, not committed for any offence, but to whom it is 
necessary to be secluded from society for a time. The expenses 
incurred by this humane indulgence, which I beheve is not of- 
ten resorted to, are defrayed by subscription or otherwise, and 
are not permitted to encumber the funds appointed for the sup- 
port of the bridewell. I have been particular in describing this 
building, because it is a perfect model for a correctional house, 
and, as far as human wisdom and philanthropy can provide, 
protects and secures the person, inflicts the punishment, and 
improves the health and the morals of the offender, in a man- 
ner which confers lasting honour on the magistracy of the 
country. 

The register-olKce is a splendid building, and most favourably 
and judiciously placed at the east end of Princes'-street, from 
which it recedes opposite to the North Bridge. Of this grace- 
ful pile the Scotch are justly proud, as well on account of its 
beauty as its great national utility. Its front is 200 feet, and 
its depth 120. In the middle of the former, which is adorned 
with a fine entablature of the Corinthian order, is a projection, 
in which there are three windows and four Corinthian pilasters, 
supporting a pediment j and above is a large dome, 50 feet in 
diameter and 80 high : at either end of the front are smaller 
projections, containing each a Venetian window, and surmount- 
ed by a small cupola. The object of this building is to afford a 
place of deposite, indestructible by fire, for the records of the 
country, many of which have, at different times, been lost or 
mutilated 5 and every act connected with an alienation of pro- 
perty in Scotland, affecting creditors, must, in order to be valid, 
be registered here. To those who know the abominable and 
ruinous frauds which are practised upon creditors in England 
by secret conveyances, this institution must appear peculiarly 
valuable. In York and Middlesex there are register-ofEces. 
How much is it to be lamented that one is not erected in every 
provincial division ! 

The decorations of the interior do not correspond with the 
external beauty of the building. The rotunda under the dome 
is disfigured by a vast collection of old and modern record and 
other books, plainly bound, which, instead of being concealed 
by green silk and brass lattice-work, obtrude themselves upon 
the eye, and accord with the noble appearance of the room just 
as well as the hat of a mendicant would become a Knight of the 



59 

Bath in his full robes. The statue of his present Majesty, by 
the Hon. Mr. Darner, is not one of the happiest productions of 
that distinguished statuary. This building cost 40,000/. in 
erecting, and is only half of the original plan. 

Amongst the beautiful modern structures which embellish 
this city, I must not pass over the Bank of Scotland. It stands 
nearly at the head of the entrance of the Earthen Mound. As 
it is reared upon the ridge of a hill, much labour and cost were 
expended in finding a solid foundation : it is said that there is as 
much stone and mortar below, not visible, as there is in the 
structure which is raised above it. A handsome stone curtain, 
with a ballustrade, conceals the dead wall on the north part of 
this structure, where the declivity is very great. The whole 
has a very light and elegant effect, and, seen from Prince's- 
street, finely contrasts with the lofty sombre houses which are 
its near associates. 

It is a fact worthy of observation, that there is not a single 
house in the New Town which has been built of Scottish tim- 
ber ; the whole having been brought from the shores of the 
Baltic — a circumstance owing to the plantations in Scotland 
being of recent date, although it is upon record, and sufficient 
evidences remain, that in former times it abounded with fo- 
rests. 

The day which, with some friends, I had selected for a 
visit to Roslin, being very favourable, we set off for that 
place, which has so often excited the admiration of all de- 
scriptions of visiters. It is about seven English miles south 
from Edinburgh, and some agreeable prospects embellish 
the road to it. The chapel is rather small ; but it is a beautiful 
piece of- Gothic architecture. It is 40 feet 8 inches from the 
floor to the top of the arched roof j 34 feet 8 inches broad, and 
68 feet long. The inside is divided into a middle and two side 
aisles, by seven thick columns on each side, supporting pointed 
arches. The profusion of ornaments is astonishing, and vsrould^ be 
tedious in description. Some of them are really ** sermons in 
stones^^ or illustrations of the Bible, cut in stone in the most 
grotesque and extraordinary style. At the south-east corner 
there is a descent by a flight of steps into a little crypt, or 
chapel. An old woman who shews the building is also a great 
curiosity, and tells a long gossiping story of the architect's 
knocking out the brains of his apprentice, because, during his 
absence, he executed a fine fluted column, called the Appren- 



60 

tice's Pillar, near the high altar, bniamented with wreaths of 
foliage and flowers, in alto relievo, twisting spirally round it in 
a style which excited his envy. In proof of the story she 
shews the head of the apprentice supporting a bracket in the 
wall, which resembles a bearded old man. Upon the archi- 
traves of one of the pillars there is an angel playing upon a bag- 
pipe. I hope it is not to *be presumed that he brought that in- 
strument from Heaven. 

Although there are now orily a few cottages and houses at 
Roslin, it appears to have held at one time high rank aitiongst 
the cities of Scotland. 

William St.- Clare, Earrof Orkney and Caithness, whofoond- 
ed it in 1440, lived in great magnificence at his castle near this 
chapel. Mr. Hay, in his MS. in the Advocates' library, says, 
«< About that time," (that is, at the building of the chapel), 
" the town of Roslin, being next to Edinburgh and Hadding- 
ton, in east Lothian, became very populous by the great con« 
course of all ranks and degrees of visiters that resorted to this 
J*rince at his palace of the Castle of Roslin ; for he kept a great 
court, and was royally served at his own table in vessels of gold 
and silver : Lord Dirleton being his master household, Lord 
Borthwick his cup-bearer, and Lord Fleeming his carver ; in 
whose absence they had deputies to attend, viz. Stewart, Laird 
of Drumlaurig, Tweedie, Laird of Drumerline, and Sandi- 
lands. Laird of Calder. He had his hall and the apartments 
richly adorned with embroidered hangings. He flourished in 
the reigns of James the first and second. His Princess Eliza- 
beth Douglass, already mentioned, was served by seventy- live 
gentlewomen, vi'hereof fifty-three were daughters of noblemen, 
^11 clothed in velvets and silks, with thin chains of gold, and 
other ornaments ; and was attended by two hundred riding gen- 
tlemen in all her journeys ; and if it happened to be dark when 
she went to Edinburgh, where her lodgings were at the foot of 
Bbckfriar's "Wynd, eighty lighted torches were carried before 
Iier." ' 

As I quitted this beautiful pile, Harold's song occurred tc 



ms 



**• O'er Roslin all tliat ^rear^' night 

A wor.d'rous blaie was seen to gfcafn ; 

'Twas broader thai! tlie waich fir-e-llght, 
And redder than the bright moon-beam 

It glar'd on Roslin's castled roCk, 
Ic ruddled al! the copse-i.voctl g!en ; 



61 

' Twas seen from Dryden's groves of oak. 
And seen from caveniM Hawthornden." 

Lay of the Lml Minstrel, p, 191, 

A siiort distance from tiie chapel stand the ruins of Roslin 
Castle, the ancient seat of the Saint Clares, in a situation of 
singularly romantic beauty, upon a mount above the North Esk, 
the approach to which is by a bridge thrown over a deep ravine 
and resting on a rock on either side. Vast compact masses of 
the castle (supposed to have been built in the twelfth century) 
have, fallen down, and lie on the declivity near the bridge. The 
scenery around is enchanting 5 but 1 saw, with regret, that the 
merciless hand of the woodman had sadly denuded the sur- 
rounding grounds which slope to the Esk. The walks about 
the chapel and castle are much frequented by the citizens of 
Edinburgh.- and their families, in the summer. It is their Rich- 
raond-hill, where they enjoy the fruits of the beauties of nature. 
Strawberries grow in great abundance there. 



CHAPTER VI. 

iianuthornden-— anecdote cf Drummond — Dalkeith — "hotchpotch— ^anecdcie 
of Dr. yohrfson-^Dalkeith-house-^the royal injirmary-^the parish 
school-— the nenjo college-— -the Senatus Academicus— remarks upon the dis- 
cipline of the college— the medical school — remarks upon the professors—^ 
?nedical jurisprudence— ^its objects— its importance— 'the college library. 

THE walk from the castle along the river to Hawthorn- 
den is exquisite beyond imagination. It much resembles, only 
that it is more expanded, the celebrated Dargle, in the county 
of Wicklow, in Ireland. At every meander of the river, new 
beauties banquet the eye. The general appearance of the sce- 
nery is more graceful than grand. Rich, red, and grey rocks, 
just rising above a succession of trees and shrubs, profusely and 
elegantly arranged by the hand of Nature, who seems proud to 
contemplate her work in the dark mirror of the winding stream 
that flows belowj . characterise tbjs delicious spot. At length we 



■m 



saw the classic wails of Hawthornden, crowning the summit uf 
lofty rugged rocks, from which the venerable structure finely 
harmonises with the luxuriant vale below, and the "ver- 
drous wall" of trees that rises on the opposite bank of the 
river. 

This ancient residence of the amiable and harmonious Drum- 
mond was worthy of the Poet. His song and his sufferings 
spread an air of tenderness over the beautiful scene, which af- 
fects the mind as it engages the eye. It is a scene in which the 
vivacity of the gay would be tempered, and in which the un- 
happy might find consolation. The Poet was of high descent. 
His family became first distinguished by the marriage dF Robert 
III. whose Oueen was sister to William Drummond, of Car- 
nock, one of his ancestors. After being educated at Edinburgh 
in 1606, he studied civil law at Bourges, in France; but the 
spirit of poetry soon seduced him from that barren study, and 
conducted him to Hawthornden, to copy and commemorate the 
beauties of Nature, which she had so profusely scattered round 
his retirement. It was here that Ben Jonson came from Lon- 
don, on foot, on purpose to see him. Here he wrote his Cy- 
press Grove and his Flowers of Sion ; and here he would have 
continued to pour his harmonious verse, had not the death of a 
lady, to whom he was devoted and about to be married, forced 
him to fly from his own affecting reflections to Paris, and 
thence to Rome, where he resided eight years. How forcibly 
and poetically he felt the loss that drove him from his romantic 
shades will appear in the few following lines, in which the ten- 
der spirit of Petrarch seems to breathe. 

*' Lo ! in a flash, that light is gone away, ' 

Which drizzle did each eye, delight each mind; 

And with that sun from whence it came, combiu'dj 
Now makes more radiant Heaven's eternal day. 
Let beauty now bedew her cheek with tears ; 

Let widow'd Music pnly sigh and moan j 
Poor Virtue, get thee wings and mount the spheres, 

For dwelling-place on earth for thee is none : 
Death hath thy temple raz'd. Love's empire soil'd. 
The world of honour, worth, and sweetness, spoil'd." 

After several years had passed over in grief, it gradually 
yielded to the attractions of another fair one, whom ^he mar- 
ried. During the unhappy wars between Charles I. arid his par- 
liament, he suffered much in his mind, and strongly advocated 
the royal cause in several able writings, and at length died, 



63 

Gverwheirned with grief, upon hearing that the King had suf- 
fered upon the scaffold. His prose compositions are well 
known ; and wlien the language of the country to which he 
belonged, and the age in which he wrote, are considered, the 
melodious sweetness of his numbers cannot fail to excite equal 
surprise and admiration. 

As I stood gazing at Hawthornden, one of the windows 
opened, and a female appeared, who, my companions informed 
me, was the fair descendant of my favourite Bard : my curiosity 
soon baffled itself -, the young lady, with characteristic diffidence 
withdrew as soon as she saw she had awakened it. In Miss 
Drummond, I am told by those who have the pleasure of know- 
ing her, the cultivated taste and amiable disposition of her il- 
lustrious ancestor survives. 

Below the precipice upon which the house stands are several 
deep caverns, hewn out of the freestone rock ; one cave is cal- 
led the King's Gallery, another the King's Bedchamber, and a 
third the Guard-room ; and removed to a little distance is 
a small one, called the Cypress Grove, the subject of one of 
his poems, and in which, it is said, Drummond composed seve- 
ral others. These excavations are supposed to have been retreats 
during the terrible wars which so long subsisted between the 
Scots and Picts, or English and Scots. They were also resorted 
to for concealment by the celebrated Sir Alexander Ramsay, an 
ancestor of the Dalhousie family, who distinguished himself 
for his prowess in the succession wars between Bruce and 
Baliol ; and by the young warriors of his time, who felt a ro- 
mantic pride and honour in being permitted to join his stand- 
ard. 

Soon after quitting Hawthornden the country became more 
level, and presented a highly-cultivated and beautiful appear- 
ance. The friends who accompanied me in this excursion and 
I passed by many elegant country houses, and at length arrived 
at Dalkeith, where, having ordered our dinner, we rambled in- 
to the town, which appears to be very populous, and is said to 
have the largest market for corn in Scotland; there are also 
manufactories ot candles, soap, leather, and hats, carried on 
here. The houses are generally mean and dirty, but the inns are 
very good. We had here, what indeed is common in Scotland, 
some excellent hotch-potch, a soup of vegetables and mutton, 
which the Scotch make in perfection. It is related, that, soon 
after Dr. Johnson's return from Scotland, a Scottish lady, at 
whose house he was, as a little compliment, ordered some hotch« 



64 , 

potch for his dinner. After the Doctor iiaci laSted ky she asked 
him if it were good i to which he replied, " Very good for 
liogs /' "Then pray," said the lady, «« let me help yju to «i lit- 
tle more." 

After dinner we visited Dalkeith-house, the residence of the 
Duke of Buccleugh. This building is a large substantial family 
housCj bu'l" in the beginning of the last century. There are 
some portrau': ]u the different roomsj which are entitled to no~ 
tice, particularly Saint Dominique and Saint Francis, by Car- 
rachi > Saints disputing upon the Trinity, by Del Sarti •, twp 
Landscapes^ by Lorraine ; Elizabeth, Duchess of Buccleugh, 
and Lady M. Scoit, by Sir Joshua Reynolds, very beautiful, but 
uimfor.tinately,, sivuing the fate of other productions of that ex- 
qai^^iie iiia.st:'r> the oolcurc are rapidly fading. There is also, 
from the ::aff.<e great handj a portrait of Lady Caroline Mon- 
tague; and, what is singular, the back-ground is a winter 
scene, and a little robin is whimsically approaching her. There 
are also many more family and other portraits. 

The grounds adjoining to the house are tastefully arranged, 
and well planted witli shrubs ; and the North Esk, which flows 
belov^, is adorned with an elegant bridge of one large arch, 70 
feet wide and 45 high. The park is of great extent, containing 
about eight hundred Scottish acres, and surrounded by a wall. 
It has much fine wood, and many large and venerable trees, un- 
der the shade of which vhe visiter may enjoy the rippling and 
soothing sounds of the North and South Esk, which flow through 
this noble enclosure. The wood abounds with squirrels. In- the 
evening we returned to the capital, much delighted with our 
day's excursions. 

In company with my much-esteemed friend, Arthur Clifford, 
Esq. I visited the Royal Infirmary, which stands in the southern 
district of the city. Its building was comTr-.enced in 1738, and 
completed by the aid of splendid public and private donations. 
It consists of a body of two wings, three full stories high, and 
an attic story •, the front is 210 feet long, and the interior is ad- 
mirably arranged. In the hall is a bust, by NoUekens, of the 
late Provost Drummond, whose memory is very, and justly, po- 
pular in Scotland. This humane character displayed the most 
unbounded zeal in promoting the institution ; and the pen of 
Dr. Robertson has furnished the following grateful inscription 
under his bust : 



65 
-«< GEORGE DRUMMOND,. 

"To whom this county is indebted for all the benefits which it derives from 
the Royal Infirmary." 

Over the principal entrance is a statue of King George II. in 
a Roman costume ; and on the wall is inscribed, on the right 
side, " I was naked and ye clothed me -," and on the left, " I 
was sick and ye visited me." Two hundred and twenty-eight 
patients can be accommodated, with a separate bed for each ; 
the males are separated from the females, and the medical and 
chirurgical subjects are in distinct wards. The hospital is visited 
every day by two physicians, in the presence of the students ; 
and journals of all the cases are kept, in which are daily regis- 
tered the symptoms of disease, the remedies prescribed, and the 
progress and termination of the disorder. Upon an average, a- 
bout 2000 patients are annually admitted, and the deaths are sel- 
dom more than one in twenty-five. This institution is not only 
highly valuable for the extent of its charity, but may be con- 
sidered as a seminary of medical education. 

There are hot and cold baths for the patients, and also excel- 
lent baths, kept distinct, for the public, in the same build- 

The High School is near the Infirmary ; it is a plain stone 
building, in a bad situation, in the centre of a long enclosed 
area, and is divided into five school rooms, besides a large hall 
and a library. The Latin language is taught in great purity, and 
the general symptom of education adopted is such as tends at 
once to improve both the head and the heart-. There are five 
masters, \<rho are gentlemen of great learning and respectability ; 
they are very inadequately paid for their arduous attention. The 
head master is allowed 30/. and the others 20/. a year each ; and 
each of the pupils, of whom there are generally 600, pays half 
a guinea a quarter to the master of his class. The examinations 
are annual, and usually, as is the case at the public schools ia 
Holland, in the presence of the magistrates of the city, the 
professors of the University, and clergy. Many men who have 
afterwards shed lustre upon their country, have received their 
early education in this noble seminary. There is also a parish 
school in Canongate, the character of which, and of its mas- 
ters, ranks very high. 

From the High School the attention of the stranger is natu- 
rally conducted to the new University, on the western side of 
vhe sotjtliern extremity of the South Bridge, whose august but 

I 



66 , 

unfinished pile excites sentiments both of admiration and regret. 
Over the gate is a handsome portico, supported by enormous 
columns of the Doric order, each of which is formed of one so- 
lid mass of stone. The design, by Mr. Robert Adam, appears 
to have beeil very grand 5 but it has proved to be far too costly 
for the resources of the country. In the infatuation of endea- 
vouring to eclipse the splendour of the English colleges, by the 
erection of this magnificent pile, the shrewd and economical 
chatatter of the Scotch, who know so well and so creditably, on 
all other occasions, to make the ends correspond with the means, 
seem^ to have been exchanged for the random and thoughtless 
generosity of their Irish brethren. With a subscription of thirty- 
two thoasand pounds, they have proceeded thus far to erect a 
building, the completion of which would require at least one 
hundred and twenty thousand more, and which, were it com- 
pleted, as originally intended, would be infinitely too vast for 
its objects. The builders came to a pause for want of finances ; 
in this dilemma, the bounty of the crown contributed ; but all 
was inadequate. Thus a large sum of money, and much talent, 
toil, and time, have been consumed, in raising to the sight of the 
citizens of Edinburgh, a pile> which when tinted by « the mel- 
lowing hand of Time," will afford them the melancholy but 
picturesque! effect of a mighty ruin. The building, were it 
complete, would also lose much of its dignity, by not receding 
to a proper distance from the street. At present, the college 
business is conducted in part of the old and part of the new 
structure. 

Frorti the want of skill and judgment without, it is with plea- 
sure that I turn to the genius and learning within. The exalted 
charactiet and renown which this university has long obtained, 
renders the eulogium of a stranger unnecessary, if not pre- 
suming. 

The Senatus Academicus of this celebrated establishment, 
consists of a principal and of a professor in each of the follow* 
sng classes, for the different branches of education : — ■ 

The Rev. George H. Baird, D. D. Principal. 

LITERATURE AND FHIX-OSOPHY. 

Classes. Professorsi 

Humanity - - - Mr. Chiistison. 

Greek « - - Mr. Dunbar. 



67 



Ivlathemaflcs - - - - 

Logic - - . - 

Moral Philosophy and Political Economy 
Natural Philosophy _ - - 

Rhetoric and Belles-Letters 
Medical Astronomy - - - 

Natural History 

THEOLOGV. 

Divinity , . r- 

Church Hist«ry . - - 

Hebrew and Persic - - - 



J-AW. 



Civil Law -^ 

Scots Law 

Univ. Civ. Hist. 

Law of Nature and Nations 



c Mr. Adam Ferguson- 
i Mr. Leslie. 

Dr. Finlayson. 

Mr. Stewart. 

Mr. Playfair. 

Dr. Brown. 

Mr. Blair. 

Mr. Jamiesop. 



Dr. Hunter, 
Dr. Meiklejohn. 
Dr. Moodie. 



;Mr. Wylde. 
[Mr. Irvine. 

Mr. Hume, 

Mr. W. F. Tytler. 

Mr. Hamilton. 



MEDICINE. 



Medicine, Anatomy, and Surgery 

Med. andChymistry 

Theory of Physic 

Practice of Physic 

Med. and Botany 

Med. and Mat. Med. 

Midwifery 

Natural History 

Agrriculture 

Military Surgery 

Medical Jurisprudence 



-i 



Dr. Alexander Monro, 
Dr. A. Monro, jun. 
Dr. Hope. 
Dr. Duncan. 
Dr. Gregory. 
Dr. Rutherford. 
Dr. James Home. 
Dr. James Hamilton. 
Mr. Jamieson. 
Dr. Coventry. 
Mr. Thompson. 
IJr. Duncan, jun. 



The professors are allowed small salaries ; they have no houses 
or establishments from the university ; and no fellowships or 
livings to look forward to. The fees of the students form the 
principal sources of their support ; and thus, by the unwearied 
exertions of their talents and learning, the duties of their im- 
portant stations are efficaciously discharged, and the best inte- 
rests of the university promoted. The terms for each course of 
lectures are three guineas. The courses continue during the 
whole of the session, or from the beginning of November to 
the, end of April in the ensuing year. Dr. Johnson, I believe, 
prefers this plan of giving a continued course for five months^ 
or more, to the English method of short terms. The studentS;^^ 
contrarily to the practice which obtains in the English colleges^, 
live how and where they please, attend what lectures ther 



68 

choose, have little or no private intercourse with the professors, 
and are under no collegiate discipline whatever. A parent or 
guardian would, at first, naturally exclaim against this total ab- 
sence of discipline ; but no indecorum or inconvenience is found 
to follow. Young men of moderate fortune are not mortiiSed 
and depressed by being forced into a style of living and extra- 
vagance to which their finances are inadequate. By living in the 
city, they have it in their power to visit amongst genteel families 
and to temper the austerity, of learning with the amenity of 
good manners. Young men, in bodies, have been known, 
many times, to present formidable opposition to scholastic disci- 
pline, and even to the police of towns in which their seminaries 
were placed, which, as individuals, they would not dare to at- 
tempt. By being thus dispersed, and left to the guidance of 
their own discretion, no cause can well arise for such combina- 
tion, nor would it succeed were it attempted. Upon inquiry, I 
could hear of no excesses committed by any of the students, 
which, in the slightest degree, affected their character as a bo- 
dy j and when it is considered that, upon an average, there are 
not less than fifteen hundred students at the University, the re- 
sult of the inquiry is not a little favourable to the conduct of 
those who come from remote parts of the kingdom, to draw 
from this great spring of intellect. At all the principal univer- 
sities upon the Continent, the same mode of treatment, with 
regard to the students, is adopted. 

Many young men come from America, Ireland, and England, 
and are entered at the university, for the purpose of learning 
all the branches of education, except those of divinity and law, 
which, from the peculiar constitution of the Scottish church 
and Scottish law, are generally confined to the natives of the 
(Country. I was informed that the principal reason why English 
young noblemen do not resort to this university is the extraordi- 
nary facility with which, in Scotland, the matrimonial yoke 
may, by very little stratagem, be imposed upon a young man, 
the laws upon the subject of marriage being so much more relax- 
ed there than in England. 

The Chairs of Church History and Natural History, Law of 
Nature and Nations, Astronomy and Rhetoric, are in the gift of 
the crown. The Professor of Agriculture is nominated by Sir 
"^illiam Pultney, the founder. The other professorships are at 
the disposal of the Town Council of Edinburgh ; and much of 
the celebrity of the university is owing to the incorruptible 
fidelity and sound discrimination of the magistracy of Edin- 



69 

burgh in supplying the vacant Chairs with gentlemen of dis- 
tinguished talents in their respective departments, and by cre- 
ating new professorships as the interests of society and the pro- 
gress of human intellect require them. 

As a medical school, the University of Edinburgh first ob- 
tained that distinction, which, as well as the number cf medical 
students, has ever since been in a progressive state cf increase. 
At this college there are no public disputations •, and all degrees 
are disregarded except that of Doctor of Medicine. Nothing 
can be more honourable to the Scots than their making the 
study of the first importance to mankind the principal object of 
their academic labours and researches. A student, previously 
to taking out his medical degree, jnust attend a course of lec- 
tures delivered by six of the professors connected with the dif- 
ferent branches of medicine ; viz. of anatomy, chymistry, ma- 
teria medica, the practice of piiysic, physiology, and botany, 
who are named the Faculty, and at the period of graduation 
must be examined by them. These examinations, which are in 
Latin, are conducted with equal strictness and justice. The 
diploma is the reward of merit alone, wholly separated from 
the influence of the personal history or connections of the stu- 
dent. The first examination, and the severest, takes place 
privately at the houses of one or other of the faculty ; the rest 
are conducted publicly in the library of the university. The 
names of Monro, Hope, Gregory, and Duncan, are justly ce- 
lebrated in this department ; they do equal honour to their 
country and to human nature. The Anatomical Theatre, which 
is in .the new part of the college buildings, is spacious and ele- 
gant, and well adapted to its purpose ; the Dissecting Room is 
attached to it j but the difiiculty of procuring subjects for dis- 
section, I was informed, renders London, as a school of prac- 
tical anatomy, infinitely superior to Edinburgh. 

The lectures delivered on law by Mr. Hume, the nephew of 
the historian, are spoken of as very able, and are much valued; 
these, and access to the judicial courts, afford great facilities to 
the jurisprudential student. In the School of Divinity most of 
the young men who are destined for the church derive their 
theological knowledge, and learn the necessary qualifications for 
procuring reputation with the public. As a school of general 
literature, this university ranks higher than any other. Upon 
the highly intellectual department of moral philosophy, a study 
at once so important to society and so difficult of elucidation, 
the accomplished endowments, the luminous eloquence, and 



the classic purity of language of Professor Stewart, have shed a 
brilliant lustre. Natural philosophy, another branch of general 
literature, is also much indebted to the scientific powers of 
Professor Playfair, a gentleman well known to the scientific 
world for his very elegant and able illustration of the Huttonian 
theory j and the mathematical chair is very ably filled by Mr. 
Leslie, who has also distinguished himself by a very ingenious 
and learned inquiry into the nature of heat. The other de- 
partments of learning are also conducted with great ability by 
the gentlemen who are respectively at the head of them. 

The recent professorship of medical jurisprudence has excited 
considerable curiosity, principally on account of its having been 
made a subject of parliamentary comment. Medical jurispru- 
dence has been for some time a subject of academic investiga- 
tion at Goettingen, Giesen, and Leipsic, in Germany, under 
the name of juridical or forensic medicine, medecina forensis ; 
also medicinische polizey, or state medicine ; and, in France, 
the subjects connected with it have been systematically discus- 
sed in two very ingenious works : " Les Lois eclairees par les 
Sciences Physiques, par R. E. Foderee •," and « Medicine Le- 
gale et Police Medicale, de P. A. O. Makon, Professeur de Me- 
decine Legale, &c. a I'Ecole de Medecine de Paris." Medical 
jurisprudence, as appears by a brief view of its extent and im- 
portance, considered as a branch of education, by its present 
able professor. Dr. Duncan, jun. comprehends both juridical 
inedicine and medical police, and originated with the code of 
laws enacted by the Emperor Charles V. under the name of 
« Constitutio Criminalis Carolina," which ordains that the opi- 
nions of physicians should be taken, with regard to wounds, 
child-murder, poisoning, procured abortion, concealed preg- 
nancy, &c. and which induced some legislators to enjoin that all 
tribunals and judges should obtain, from sworn physicians, ap- 
pointed to this office, their opini«a upon subjects connected 
with their studies, in a course of legal investigation ; and since 
that period, many able men have treated the subject with great 
ability, particularly Dr. Loder, of Jena. How valuable the 
branch of juridical medicine is, and how necessary, in criminal 
matters, for judges, juries, and advocates to have it within their 
power to avail themselves of such a description of knowledge, 
will appear from the following matters of inquiry, which occur 
most frequently in criminal courts. 



I i 

a. The cause of death, as ascer- 7, Abortion j its having occurreJ, 

lained from the examination of 1, spontaneously, from habit j 2, 

the body. accidentally, from external vio- 

z. The sufficiency of the supposed leiice, or passions of the fnind ; 

cause to have produced death. 3, or intentionally, from the intro- 

3. Probable event of wounds, con- duction of a sharp instrument, use ' 
tusions, Sec. of certain drugs, &c. 

4. The importance of the part in- 8. Rape ; its being attempted or 
jured. consummated ; recent or previous 

5. Supposed child-murder, whether defloration. 

still-born or not. 9. The state of mind of the accu- 

6. Whether death accidental or in- sed, so as to make him responsible 
tended. for his actions. 

In civil courts the questions generally regard — 

1. The state of mind; madness, 4. The first-born of twins. - 

melancholy, idiotism. 5. Diseases concealed; pretended, 

a. Pregnancy ; concealed, pretended. imputed. 

3. Parturition; concealed, pretend- 6. Ags and duration of life. 
ed, retarded, premature. 

Before consistorial courts, the subjects investigated are — - 

1. Impotence; general, relative, cu- 3. Uncertainty of sex. 

table, incurable. 4. Diseases preventing cohabitation, 
a. Sterility; curable, relatively in- leprosy, &c. 

curable, absolutely incurable. 

Medical police is the application of the principles deduced 
from the different branches of medical knowledge for the pro- 
motion, preservation, and restoration of general health, and as 
far transcends juridical medicine in importance, as the safety, 
prosperity, and security of nations, exceed the welfare of indi- 
viduals. To prevent the introduction of contagious diseases, or 
to arrest their progress, to preserve and improve health, to sup- 
ply nutritious and economical food for the poor, to secure to the 
indigent the advantages intended by their benefactors, to rear 
the orphan to benefit the country which has adopted him, to 
regulate the abuses or ignorant treatment of the mad-house, 
and to mitigate the horrors of the prison, are subjects of impres- 
sive consequence to the community, and are the general ob- 
jects of medical police ; and more particularly the following : — 

The Situation of Places of Abode — Construction of Houses. 
Air.—Means of counteracting its impurity — Its various impregnations. 
Water. — Its necessity and purity. 

Food.— The various kinds— Comparative quantities of nourishment af- 
forded by tlism— Cheaper kinds, ■A'hich may be safely substituted in 



72 

times of scarcity — Bread — Animal Food — Butcher's Meat — Fisl: 

Vegetables — Culinary Vessels — Cookery; healthy; economical. 

Drink.— —Beer — Ale---Porter Cider Spirituous Liquors Wine — - 

Warm Drinks — Adulteration of these Liquors — Hurtful Additions- 
Vessels. 

Fire and Light. 

Clothing. 

Cleanliness. 

Professions. — Men of Letters — Manufacturer? — Mechanics — Soldiers — 
Sailors. 

Healthy Propagation. 

Pregnant and Puerperal Women. 

New-born Infants — Registers of Births. 

Physical Education. 

Prevention of Accidents. — From Poison — Hurtful Effluvia — Maniacs- 
Rabid Animals. 

Restoration of the apparently Dead. — Humane Societies — Care of the 
Dying — Dant er of too early and too late Burial — Places of Interment 
— Manner of conducting it— Bills of Mortality. 

Contagious an;i , Epidemic Diseases.— Plague — Putrid Fever — Dysen- 
tcy-r-Small Pox — Inoculation — Extirpation of them — Leprosy — Itch 
and V^enereal — Precautions to betaken to prevent their introduction, 
to diminish their violence, to destroy their cause, and to counteract 
their effects. 

Management uf Public Institutions, in which many persons are col- 
lected together. 

Hospitals for the Indigent, viz. Lying-in Hospitals— Foundling ditto- 
Orphan ditto — Ho<:pitais for Education— Aged— Blind — Maimed. 

Military Hospitals. — Piisoners of War— Lazarettoes— Work-houses— 
Prisons. 

Hospitals for the Sick. — Maniacs — Convalescents — Incurable. 

Here are also many -other highly interesting subjects, which 
come within the range of a-edical jurisprudence and police ; 
and their interference may sometimes be advantageously extend- 
ed beyond the strict limits of their operation. 

The importance of the subject was deeply felt by his Majes- 
ty's late ministers, who first considered it, at the recommenda- 
tion of the Right Hon. Henry Erskine, then Lord Advocate for 
Scotland , in consequence of which a professor was appointed, 
with a salary of one hundred pounds per annum, in the person 
of Dr. Duncan, jun. whose father commenced a private course of 
about twelve lectures, eight or nine years since, with much abi- 
lity, but without any appointment or salary. 

In our criminal courts, the value of applying to medical gen- 
tlemen, to aid the judge and the jury in their opinion and ver- 
dict, in criminal cases, is already felt ; and in two recent trials 
for murder committed upon the highway, at the Old Bailey, 
which have much excited the interest of the public, two medi- 



73 

cal gentlemen gave their opinions, upon oath, of the cause of 
the deaths of the deceased, grounded upon the evidence pro- 
duced on the part of the crown. This subject has occupied 
more of my journal than I originally intended, on account of 
its being so much misconceived, and to many so little known. 

The library otthe college was founded before the university, 
by Clement Little, Esq. Advocate, and has been considerably 
augmented by subsequent donations. » It is now a very good 
and substantial one, and contains a complete collection of medi- 
cal and classical books. The funds arise, as I was informed, 
from fees paid by professors upon taking their chairs, and by 
students upon their being matriculated. The money paid by 
medical students is laid out In the purchase of medical books, 
except that now and then the medical professors will give some 
of these contributions to ihe librarian for purchasing other books. 
The medical students are by far the most numerous. The li- 
brarian is paid by the town. 

The societies, or clubs, of the students, for their improve- 
ment in medicine, natural history, and general literature, are 
powerful auxiliaries of the college. Their objects are to im- 
prove their members in composition and in public speak- 
ing. Some of these associations have been formed for many 
years, and have had for their members men who^ have after- 
wards shone with great merit and distinction in life. Amongst 
them, the Royal Society of Edinburgh, erected into a cor- 
porate body in 1783, is entitled to precedence. The discove- 
ries, writings, experiments, and observations of this learned 
body, are well known to the world, and confer great honour 
upon their respective authors. 



74 



CHAPTER VIL 

The medical a}id physical societies'— the speculaii-ve society- — ccnlro'versial 
spirit amongst the professors— -the botanic garden-— Leith tvalk-^Jiesh- 
ers-—Leiih— the grammar^ school — -sail to Inchkeith—honxi formerly ap- 
plied— 'the bell rock — the trade of Leith-^its shippitig— French nJOO' 
men — anecdote of sir Hugh Palliser— distilleries— effects of ale and 
ivhiskey contrasted— Scottish carriages— stage coaches— Herioi* s hof- 
pital — the charity fujork-house-— institution for the relief of the blind — 
anecdote of a blind man. 

AMONGST the many literary institutions of Edinburgh2 
the Medical and Physical Societies dieserve to be mentioned, 
particularly the former, which is attended not only by students, 
but by many respectable inhabitants of the town. At their 
meetings, essays, composed by the members, are read, and sub- 
jects are frequently discussed with much spirit and eloquence. 

The Speculative Society was instituted in 1764, for improve- 
ment in composition and public speaking, in metaphysics, poli- 
tical economy, jurisprudence, and the belles-lettres. The re- 
putation of this association is next in rank to that of the Medi- 
cal Society. Many of the members maintain a high character 
in the political and literary world. There is also the Society of 
Antiquaries of Scotland, projected in 1780, composed of noble- 
men and gentlemen, to whom the antiquities of their native 
country are interesting, and which form the objects of their in- 
vestigation : a volume of their transactions was published in 
1792. 

In the Natural History Society also, established in 1782, the 
members have obtained considerable reputation in branches of 
those sciences which form the objects of their investigation. 
The meetings of those societies are in general weekly ; and the 
subjects discussed afford constant exercise and expansion to the 
intellect of the student, which enable him, with increased faci- 
lity, to profit by the lectures which he has selected for his at- 
tention, and frequently to sit in judgment upon their merits. 
These sources of information are also considerably increased <by 
the natural effect of the high controversial spirit which reigns 
amongst the professors themselves, and the physicians and sur- 
geons of Edinburgh, who are generally engaged in literary 
warfare* 



75 

In my way to Leith, about a mile and a half from Edinburgh, 
I saw the Botanic Garden, which stands about midway be- 
tween the city and that port-town, and supported, as I was in- 
formed, by Government. This garden covers about five Eng- 
lish acres, has a green-house and hot-houses for exotics, and 
contains a variety of curious plants, arranged after the Linnsean 
system, and also a monumental vase, erected in honour of Lin- 
njeus by the late Dr. Hope, with this plain incription : — 

LINN^O POSUIT 
JO. HOPE. 

1779. 

Botanic lectures are given here by Dr. Rutherford, from the 
1st of May to the 1st of July, annually. 

The walk to Leith is very agreeable, and generally a scene of 
much bustle, the interest of which is not a little increased by 
the-*iumber of fine women walking from one town to the other, 
and the many handsome equipages passing and. re-passing. 
Leith is to Edinburgh what Dock is to Plymouth, or Scheveling 
to the Hague, in Holland. The entrance to Leith, and the 
streets of Leith in general, are narrow and dirty. In this town 
I observed, for the first time, that butchers are calledj^^j-^^rj-. It 
is divided into two parts by the water of Leith, called the North 
and South Leith, It is a tide harbour ; and at low water the 
sands are very extensive, and highly Inconvenient to the ship- 
ping, and particularly to the passage boats which sail from this 
port to Kinghorn, in Fife. The magistrates of Edinburgh have 
done much to correct the great difficulties which Nature has 
placed in the way of this harbour, by having erected a stone 
pier at a great expense, a stone quay on the west side, and some 
wet and dry docks. These, however, being found insufficient 
for the great increase of the trade and shipping of this port, a 
new stone pier was laid in 1801, a little to the westward of the 
former, connected with which, new wet and dry docks, and an 
extensive range of warehouses, are forming, which, will greatly 
improve the port. I was much struck with the elegant appear- 
ance of the Grammar School, which stands on the south-west 
part of the Links, or Downs, of Leith. It is a very recent 
structure, the expense of which was defrayed by public sub- 
scription ; it was begun in 1805, and is just finished. The rooms 
for the different classes are large and handsome. I had the 



76 

good fortune of being there at a public examination! I wit- 
nessed the examination of the female classes only, which was 
singularly interesting. Some magistrates and clergymen, and a 
great number of the friends of the children, were present ; and 
the whole presented a spectacle at once gratifying to the eye and 
heart. The young ladies (for, though thus publicly educated, 
they had the appearance of great respectability) were carefully 
and strictly examined, in the presence of this crowded assemblys 
in the various branches of learning in which they had been in- 
structed ; and their ansv/ers-were such as deservedly gave great 
gratification to all present, and indeed frequently seemed sur- 
prisingly quick and able. This exhibition, as well as many 
other institutions similar to this school, which I before and af- 
terwards met with in Scotland, displayed the noble anxiety 
which the Scottish people have of diffusing knowledge ovei 
evdry part of their country. 

The Bank in South Leith is a small but handsome building, 
just finished ; and the Assembly Rooms, I was told, are hand- 
somely fitted up, and that concerts are occasionally performed 
in them in the winter. There is, as may be supposed, some 
little spirit of jealousy and rivalry on the part of the people of 
Leith, with respect to their own diversions, as cornpared with 
similar recreations in the great city. In the south and east parts 
of the town there are many handsome private houses, belonging 
to the bankers and merchants, and higher classes of tradesmen ; 
and the society, I am well informed, is very genteel. The fresh 
water of this town is very" bad. A sort of infatuation induces 
the inhabitants to submit to drink it, when, I am informed, they 
can be supplied with excellent water about a quarter of a mile 
from the place where they procure the bad, which possesses the 
quality of corroding lead, but not solder. 

Some friends accompanied me on board the Texel, command- 
ed by the Port- Admiral, Rear- Admiral Vashon, then lying in 
the Roads, vi^here we had some refreshment, and afterwards 
set off for- Inchkeith, in a Norway yawl, the Admiral not be- 
ing able to spare more hands than v/ould man such a vessel, on 
account of a great and unexpected press which had taken place 
the night before ; and indeed the ship was crowded with the 
fruits of this unpleasant service. This boat was built in Norway, 
and, although very small and low, it will, from its peculiar con- 
struction, weather out seas in which a much larger ship's boat 
would upset. - 



77 

The island is nn elevated rock, covered in many places with 
line earth, standing in the mjddle of the Forth. We entered 2. 
small bay, protected by a low pier, lately erected ; and, after 
passing over a good road, recently cut, by a tank or great wellj 
tor supplying shipping witlr water, which was locked up, (the 
key of which is lodged with the people who keep the Light- 
house), we reached the Light-house. We v/ere much pleased 
with the elegant and handsome appearance of that buildingj 
which crowns the lofty summit of the island, and is adnairably 
constructed, and answerable to its purpose in every way. ^It was 
built, as appeared by an inscription over the door, on the 18th 
May, 1803, and lighted on the 1st September, 1804. From 
i.he top there is an exquisite view of the city, the sea, its 
islands, and the shore on either side. 

As we ascended, we all thought of the great Johnson, who is 
reported by Boswell to have stalked like a giant amongst the 
thistles and nettles, and examined every part of this place with 
great attention. Brantome calls it L'Isle des Chevaux. It ap- 
pears that, in the year 1497, it was allotted for the reception of 
those who had a certain disorder, of Spanish origin, which was 
regarded as a species of plague among the ancient good folks of 
Edinburgh, to whom the Privy Council sent a letter, in which, 
in the following curious specimen of ancient orthography, they 
ordered, " that all manner of personis, being within the fre- 
dome of this burgh, guhilk are infectit, or has bene infectit, and 
uncurit of this said contagious plage, callit the grand gore, de- 
voyd, red, and pass furth of this toun and compeir, upoun the 
sandis of Leith, at ten houris before none, and thair sail have 
and fynd botis reddie in the havin, ordanit to thame be the 
officaris of this burgh, reddelie furneist with victualls to have 
them to the Inch, and thair to remain quhill God provyde for 
their health." It is now employed to a much better purpose, 
and is a most dehghtful and healthy Spot ; it has some good pas- 
ture upon it, but no trees. This island anciently belonged to 
the noble family of Keith, but afterwards became forfeited to 
the crown, in consequence of the head of the family having 
joined the rebellion in 1715. The Bell Rock, which stands 
about 12 miles south-east of Arbroath, has been long known 
for the number of horrible shipwrecks and disasters which it has 
occasioned. These dreadful accidents are soon likely to be di- 
minished, if not wholly prevented. A noble light-house, with 
revolving reflectors and bells, in case of foggy weather, under 



78 

the direction of the ingenious Mr. Simpson, is about to be erect- 
ed upon that dangerous island. 

Owing to contrary winds, and those squalls to which the 
Forth is at times terribly exposed, we had some difficulty in re- 
gaining the ship. 

I had the pleasure of dining with Mr. Oliphant, the collector 
of the customs of the port of Leith, in whose house are 
several pictures, a few of which appeared to be by the first 
masters. 

The absence of those manufactures, in this part of the coun- 
try, which are most wanted by outward bound vessels with car- 
goes, must unavoidably be a great check to the trade of Leith. 
However, ship-building has increased, and consequently, there 
has been a greater demand for ropes and cordage, manufactures 
for which have been established at Leith, and are in a flourish- 
ing condition. Indeed ship-building appears to be now carried 
to a considerable extent in Scotland. By the last return to par- 
liament it appears, that between the 5th January, 1806, and the 
5th January, 1807, 94; ships have been built, the tonnage of 
which is 9,732. The trade of Leith chiefly consists of timber, 
tar, and iron, from the Baltic -, flax and flax-seed, from Hol- 
land ; wines and spirits, from Portugal and the Mediterranean ; 
apples from England ; and a few vessels trade to the West- 
Indies, and return with valuable cargoes of rum and sugar. 
From the present system of blockade of the British ports, as it 
has been whimsically called, the trade of Leith must inevitably 
experience some temporary embarrassments ; but when a more 
civilized order of things is established, when the superb docks 
now constructing, are finished, and the spirit of manufacture 
has more widely diffused itself in the neighbourhood, no doubt 
the trade of Leith will greatly increase, and render it worthy of 
being the port of the Caledonian capital. 

The following account ©f the present state of the foreign, 
coasting, and fishing trade of Leith, may prove not uninterest- 
ing to several readers. 

Account of the total number of vessels of or belonging to the 
port of Leith, their tonnage and number of men, trading to 
and from foreign ports ; also the like amount of coasting and 
fishing vessels, for<the year ending 5th January, 1807. 





Ships. 


Tons. 


Men. 


Foreign Trade 


84 


I4.,876 


75* 


Coasting Trade 


83 


5>323 


373 



79 

FisUifig trade 7 2)^53 274 



17Z 22:45* i>399 



Account of the total number of British and foreign vessels 
trading at the port of Leith, their tonnage and number of men j 
during the year ending 5th January, 1807. 







INWARDS. 






Ships. 


Tons. 


Men, 


British 


211 


30,279 


i>77S 


Foreig,n 


129 

340 


'5.534 


993 




4S.S«3 


2,768 






OUTWARDS. 






Ships. 


Tons? 


Men, 


British 


139 


i9»597 


1,4-50 


Foreign 


109 


I3>348 


837 



248 3»)94-5 2*287 

The shore-dues at Leith (a small tax paid to the city of Edin- 
burgh, o{i landing goods at the quay) have, within the last 
twenty years, increased nearly as one to ten, without any increase 
of rate ; a decisive proof of the flourishing trade of this place 
since the time when Dr. Johnson visited it, and observed of the 
pier, or quay ; " You have no occasion for so large a one ; your 
trade does not require it : but you are like a shopkeeper, who 
takes a shop not only for what he has put into it, but that it may 
be believed he has a great deal to put into it." 

In this port a curious circumstance occurred, many years 
since, to which, it is said, the Scotch owe their prevention from 
indulging in claret, and other French wines, as much as they 
used to do formerly. After the treaty of the Union and the 
Methven Treaty with Portugal, which produced a preference to 
the Portuguese wines in Britain, the French wines were subject- 
ed to double duties •, but the British ministry, on account of the 
poverty of Scotland, and also from a prudent policy of not has- 
tily infringing upon long- established national habits, by some 
connivance did not exact the duty in a country where every per- 
son in tolerable circumstances was accustomed to drink the wines 
of France. 



80 

In the year 1754-, when Sir Hugh Palliser was Captain oi the 
Seahorse man of war, lying in the roads of Leith, a person, 
under indentures of apprenticeship, having entered as a seaman 
on beard of Capt. Palliser's ship, was reclaimed by his master, 
but refused by the commander ; in consequence of which, 
Judge Philp granted a warrant to bring the man on shore, with 
which a messenger was despatched j but Capt. Palliser, under an 
impression that he was answerable only to the Lords of the Ad- 
miralty for hi? conduct, persisted in refusing to deliver the man 
lip. The Judge, in consequence, issued another warrant to ap- 
prehend the Captain himself; which, upon his coming on shore, 
was executed,- and he was committed to prison. Upon his re- 
fusing to acknowledge the jurisdiction of the CQurt, he was 
again remanded to his former place of confinement for six 
weeks, until the apprentice was released. Upon this spirited 
conduct of Judge Philp, who was a man of remarkably mild 
manners, Lord fiardw^cke, then Lord Chancellor, remarked, 
** that he was a bold judge who had done this, but what he had 
done was right." Sir Hugh, however, upon his return to Eng- 
land, represented Scotland to be in a very thriving condition, 
and perfectly conapetent to pay the duties upon French wines j 
and threatened, if they were not duly exacted, to make the 
frauds committed upon the revenues by connivance of Govern- 
ment a subject of parliamentary investigation. This represen- 
tation and threat, acting upon the usual ministerial appetite for 
money, produced an order to the collectors of the customs to 
levy the duty upon French wines in Scotland. 

'I neither saw here, nor in all Edinburgh, except amongst 
some Highland soldiers, any appearance of the tartan. I visited 
Leith several times, and had the opportunity of observing an 
extensive pile of building in one direction leading to that town, 
which has been built for the distillation of ardent spirit from 
grain, which the Scottish distillers, from their knowledge and 
great practical observation, have carried to higher perfection 
than any other country. Thefe are also other great distilleries 
in the vicinity of the city. The astonishing rapidity of process 
to which the Scottish distillers have attained, the following ex- 
tract from the Earl of Lauderdale's " Inquiry into the Nature 
and Origin of Pnblic Wealth" will prove : — " In the year 1785, 
a proposal was made to collect the duty on the manufacture of 
spirits in Scotland, by way of license, to be paid annually for 
every still according to its size, at a fixed rate per gallon, in lieu 
of all other duties. The London distillers, men the most ex- 



81 

perienced in their profession, who agreed to the rate of the li- 
cense on the gallon, supposed to be equivalent to the former 
duties, declared themselves, from experience, satisfied that the 
time for v?orking stills with benefit was limited to an extent per- 
fectly well known ; and that whoever exceeded these limits 
would infallibly lose upon his materials, and the quality of the 
goods, what he gained in point of time ; and in conformity to 
their opinion, the duty was, in the year 1786, settled upon the 
supposition that stills could be discharged about seven times a 
week." 

« 

Two years after this, in a memorial presented to the Lords 
Commissioners of the Treasury, the same men alleged that the 
Scottish distillers had, by the ingenuity of their contrivances, 
found means to discharge their stills upwards of forty times a 
week : and we since know, from a Report made to the Lords 
Commissioners of the Treasury, in the year 1799, that a forty- 
three-gallon still was brought to such a degree of perfection as 
to be discharged at the rate of once in two minutes and three 
quarters, which is almost twenty-two times in an hour. It appears 
from this Report, that the operation of distillation vs^as capable 
of being performed in a still shorter time ; and that tiie quality 
of the spirit was no wise injured by the rapidity of the opera- 
tion." 

The ingenuity of the Scotch could not be applied to the im- 
provement of an art more peimicious and deleterious, and of 
one which presents, in a moral and physical point of view, a 
more shocking and efficacious check to' the improvement of the 
lower classes of the people. The different effects of Whisky and 
Ale upon the soldiers of militia regiments have frequently been 
observed. Whisky generally produces anger with intoxication ; 
but Ale as generally good humour. However, I saw but few in- 
stances, during my stay in Edinburgh, of any one who might be 
considered zsfooyov full. The low Scotch ?ay, when they have 
made a man tipsy, " I filled him drunk," Happy would it be 
could these manufacturers of public poison be every where 
xhecked, and breweries of wholesome ale encouraged in their 
room : if the duty on spirits was increased, and that on malt li- 
quor reduced, much might be hoped. 

Upon my return from Leith, I could not help stopping and 
admiring a very handsome display of Scottish carriages, at a 
coach-builder's of the name of Crichton, a person of great re- 
spectability and ingenuity, a Lieutenant-Colonel of a battalion of 
volunteers, and fhe inventor of a machine for the speedy con*» 

L 



82 

veyance of troops, and the easy carriages for wounded soldiers. 
This house is near the city, the approach to which, in this di- 
rection, is very beautiful. The carriages appeared to be ex- 
tremely well built, and to unite lightness to elegance; and 
were more than one-third cheaper than in England. Many of 
them are exported to the West Indies ; and before the blockade 
there was a great demand for them in the north of Europe. 

The subject naturally leads to a c6ncise comparative view of 
the introduction of coaches into Scotland, and the number of 
stage and hackney coaches belonging to Edinburgh. The first 
mention of a coach coming to Scotland was in 1598, in the 
suite of the English Ambassador, and they since became general 
in 1610. At that period, Henry Anderson, of Stralsund, in. 
Pomerania, offered to bring coaches and waggons, with horses 
to draw, and servants to attend them, provided he had the ex- 
clusive privilege of keeping these carriages, which was accord- 
ingly secured to him by a royal patent for fifteen years; during 
which he run coaches between Edinburgh and Leith, at a fare of 
2i/. each person. In 1705, upon the approach of the King's 
Commissioner to Edinburgh, he was met eight miles from the 
city by a train of forty coaches, most of which were drawn by 
six horses. In 1763, two stage-coaches, with three horses, a 
coachman, and postillion, to each coach, ran to and from Leith, 
and went every hour from eight in the morning till eight at 
night, consuming a full hour on the road, in travelling a dis- 
tance of, as I have mentioned, only one mile and a half. At 
this time there were no other stage-coaches in Scotland except 
one, which set out once a month for London, in performing 
which, a distance of 400 miles, it was sixteeti or eighteen days ; 
although, now, any one setting out on a Sunday afternoon from 
Edinburgh to London may remain a whole day there, and be 
back in Edinburgh on the Saturday following at six o'clock. 
There were last year 6 coaches, which ran every hour to Leith ; 
to Newhaven, 1; to Musselburgh, 4 ; to and from Dalkeith, 
3 ; to and from Prestonpans, 1 ; to Haddington, 2 *, and to Had- 
dington and Dunbar, 1 ; to Aberdeen, 1, a m.ail-coach ; to 
Aberdeen and Perth, 1 ; to Glasgow, 5 ; to Lanark, 1 ; to and 
from Queensferry, 2 ; to Stirling, 3 ; to Dumfries, 2 ; to Car- 
lisle, 1 ; to Kelso, 2; to Peebles, 1, a caravan; to and from 
Linlithgow and 'Falkirk, 1; to Jedburgh, 1 ; to London, 3, a 
mail and two coaches : in all, forty-two stage-coaches, of diffe- 
rent descriptions, most of which go every day. When passen- 
gers take their place, they have a ticket, with the number of 



83 

iheir seat, according to their priority of application, to prevent 
any dispute. The same regulation obtains in France, at the Bu- 
reaus des Diligences.* 

In 1787 there were only 8 hackney-coaches; there are now 
86, and most of them preferable to our's in London. Amongst 
themi are included hack-chaises, which are extremely convenient 
for making excursions to the vicinity. The private carriages 
built in Edinburgh, of which there are many, are very hand- 
some i and, with the cabinet and upholstery work, as well as 
with every other art conducive to comfort and luxury which is 
carried on in Edinburgh, exhibit convincing proofs of the high 
state of excellence to which they have attained. 

Heriot's Hospital, which stands in the southern district of the 
city, on the rising ground opposite the Castle-hill, is well wor- 
thy of notice, as the most distinguished amongst the charitable 
institutions of Edinburgh. It is a noble monument of the splen- 
did munificence of a person whose name it bears, the jeweller to 
James VI. a man who, with a fair character, died worth 50,000/. 
a most immense sum in those days ; out of which (leaving no 
issue) he bequeathed a large sum to the town council and minis- 
ters of Edinburgh, for building and endowing an hospital for 
the maintenance and education of indigent and fatherless chil- 
dren, the sotis of burgesses of that city. Heriot not having 
been paid for the jewels, with which he supplied Prince Charles, 
afterwards Charles I. when he went to the court of Spain in 
1623, upon his ascending the throne, the debt was allowed to 
the trustees of Heriot, in part of their purchase-money of the 
barony of Broughton, consisting then of crown lands in the neigh- 
bourhood of Edinburgh, and which lands form now a part of 
the foundatioh of this hospital. The house was commenced in 
1628, but owing to the civil wars, and other causes, was not 
jSnished till 1660. It is after a design of Inigo Jones, and is con- 
sidered a fine specimen of Gothic architecture. Cromwell and 
Monk, at different ^times, quartered their sick soldiers in it. <^ 

* Since writing tiie above statement of the stage-coach establishment in y' 

Edinburgh, I have been favoured with the following account of the mail- 
coaches in Scotland at present. . 

From Edinburgh. — One to Berwick, York, and London — One to 
Perth, and one to Aberdeen — One to Stirling — One to Glasgow— One to 
Dumfries, from thence to Portpatrick — One to Carlisle by Harwick, from 
thence to Liverpool— -And a mail diligence to Peebles — Ditto to Musselburgh. 

From Glasgow. — One to Ayr — One to Greenock, through Paisley and 
Port Glasgow— One to Carlisle, and on to London. 

From Carlisle.— One to Portpatrick, and through Dumfries. 



It now receives about 130 bovi^, who are iustructed in English, 
Latin, and French, writing and arithmetic. V/hen a boy leafcs 
the hospital he is entitled to 25/. sterling, and Bl. more on the 
expiration of his apprenticeship. Many of the leases granted by 
the trustees of this hospital will soon expire, when the revenues 
of this princely foundation will be greatly increased, and when, 
unlike the scandalous conduct observed under similar circum- 
stances of increase by the governors and trustees of certain np> 
bly-endowed charitable Institutions in England, it is the deter- 
mination of the trustees of Heriot's Hospital to follow up the 
intentions of the munificent founder, by taking as many more 
boys " as the sum should be sufficient for." The other de- 
partment of this establishment Is well inanaged. 

In the neighbourhood of Heriot's Hospital Is the Charity 
Workhouse, for the support of the aged and infirm poor. It 
was established in 1742. I was informed that It con- 
tained about 700 persons, of both sexes, including chil- 
dren, when I visited it. Its funds arise from a tax of two per 
cent, on the valued rents of the city, collections at the church 
doors, charitable donations, and voluntary contributions ; and 
there are two other v/orkhouses nearly upon the same plan, 
which I did not visit. In these establishments the Scotch have 
departed from their accustomed mode of supporting their poor, 
by relieving them In the bosorp of their own families, as after- 
wards noticed, and I could not help thinking the departure an 
unwise one. The poor thus aggregated together are never so 
clean or so comfortable as when the hand of Charity reaches 
them in their own homes ; more objects of pity may be there 
maintained, because the expense of a costly establishment is 
avoided, and the cases (3i those who are entitled to relief may 
be more accurately investigated. However, subject to these 
remarks, the internal arrangements and regulations bespoke 
much care and humanity. 

I was much pleased with the Institution for the Relief of the 
indigent and industrious Blind. This establishment Is very well 
conducted. The objects of it are taught to make baskets, foot-. 
mats, &c. They are not boarded in the house, but have a week- 
ly allowance, in proportion to their earnings. Seven persons, 
who have been instructed here, have commenced business on 
their own account with considerable success. Their . skill and 
quickness are truly surprising. I have long regarded the blind 
as objects more entitled to our care than to our commiseration, 
Tf we contrast the almost invariably happy gaiety of their tem- 



5C» 

per with the ennui which so often depresses those to whom Ma- 
ture has imparted the power of sight, I think the latter are in 
general more deserving of the compassion of the former. I re- 
member being once much struck with the pleasantry of a blind 
man upon his own infirmity : he was a petty coal-merchant, and 
managed his concerns with uncommon punctuality. Upon a 
bill being tendered to him for payment, he asked how it was 
drawn. The holder of it replied, that it was drawn upon him 
•it ten days after sight" — " Oh, then," said he, laughing heartily, 
" my good Sir, you can never expect me to pay it, for do you 
not perceive that I am stone blind P" 



CHAPTER VIII. 

The markets of Edinburgh— roses and stra<wberries-^anecdote of aburi' 
dance— -judicial establishment—the court of session— remark upon the 
judges— the court of justiciary— -the circuit court — the court of exche- 
quer— the faculty of ad'uocates—iuriters to the signet— the college of 
■justice— Scottish laivyers distinguished for their genius and learning—' 
the adijocates' library— the parliament-house^the tolhooth—— anecdote— 
pri'vilege of the Scottish executioner. — royal farenvell—— mortuary monu- 
metitsfeiv and bad—the Scottish Church— anecdote of John Knox—— 
the organ— nvhistling kirks— ^whimsical spiritual songs—Jeius—Ca- 
:holics. 

THE markets of Edinburgh, which are situated on a de- 
scending terrace on the north side of the High-street, are abuB- 
dantly supplied with fish, flesh, and fowl. The vegetables are 
peculiarly excellent. A sea-weed, called dulse, which grows on 
the rocks on the coast near Edinburgh, and which is used by 
the farmers for manure, without undergoing the least prepara- 
tion, is much eaten and relished by the poor people, to whom a 
large handful is sold for a penny. The dulse, the water, and 
the salt sellers, (the latter being women who carry the article 
about in creels or baskets), are amongst the petty venders who 
most arrest the attention of a stranger in the streets. In a most 
abundant supply of roses and strawberries, Edinburgh much 



86 

resembles Paris : the latter are brought (in baskets which hold a 
Scottish pint) by carts to market •, and it is estimated that up- 
wards of 100,000 Scottish, or 400,000 English pints, are an- 
nually sold, during the season, in Edinburgh and the environs. 
The fruit-market is held in the centre of the city, in stalls ar- 
ranged round the Trone Church. Wall and hot-house fruit are 
sold in the pastry-shops. Upon the whole, the fruit of Scot- 
land, with the exception of gooseberries and strawberries, is far 
inferior to that of the south. 

Although the markets are so abundantly supplied, the ar- 
ticles for sale are far from being set out with that neatness and 
order, and strong temptation to purchase, so much noticed and 
valued in the English markets. It h recorded, as a proof of the 
uncommon fertility of the surrounding country, that in 1781, 
when Admiral Parker's fleet, and a Jamaica fleet, consisting 
together of 15 sail of the line, 9 frigates, and about 600 mer- 
chantmen, and having on board about 20,000 men, lay nearly 
two months in Leith Roads, they were well supplied with every 
species of provision without raising the markets ; and the crews 
of the Jamaica fleet, who were very scorbutic, were restored to 
health by the plentiful supplies of strawberries and fresh vege- 
tables which the Edinburgh markets afforded. 

I was unfortunate in not being in Edinburgh a little longer 
before the commencement of the summer vacation. I lost 
much intellectual gratification by not having it in my power to 
witness the distinguished talents of the Scottish Pleaders. How- 
ever, I had an opportunity of attending the trial of a young man 
for a felony, before the Court of Justiciary, and v^^as much 
struck with the dignity and impressive conduct of the court and 
of the proceedings. The prisoner was not in irons, but was 
guarded by two attendants of the court. In a similar manner, 
in France, the criminals are always conducted to the tribunal 
by two gens d'armes, without irons. In England they are sel- 
dom or never put upon their trial without them. 

A very brief accouht of the great judicial establishments of 
Scotland, now that they are expected to undergo a material 
change, may not be uninteresting to the reader who has neither 
leisure nor inclination to take an elaborate view of them. They 
are composed of a civil, a criminal, and a revenue, or ex- 
chequer court. The supreme civil court is the Court of Session, 
or the Lords of Council and Session, established in 1522, after 
the model of the ancient French parliaments. The judges of 
this court -ixt fifteen in number, who are generally selected from 



87 

the faculty of Advocates ; but persons from the Society of 
Writers to the Signet, the first class of agents who conduct 
causes without being pleaders, may also be chosen to this high 
office, under certain regulauons. In this court, all civil actions, 
and (there being no Court of Chancery) all matters of equity, 
are determined. It also is a Court of Appeal for inferior tribu- 
nals, subject to a flnai review of the House of Lords. One of 
the judges, in i-otation, called the Lord ordinary during the ex- 
ercise of the office, sits in the room in which the parliament 
formerly assembled, two days in the %veek;, for the despatch of 
summary causes. In the Court of Session the judges are also 
the jury. Most of the proceedings are carried on in printed 
pleadings, in which refined logic and noble specimens of com- 
position are frequently displayed. Sometimes a hearing in pre- 
sence is ordered, when barristers argue, viva voce, the pleas of 
their clients. As the judges have a double duty to perform, for 
want of a separate jury, they take peculiar pains with their de- 
cisions, which renders procrastination inevitable; but justice is in 
general fairly and satisfactorily administered, and their decisions 
are not very often reversed upon an appeal to the British par- 
liament. The number of the judges has been much objected 
to, on account of their being likely to be unduly swayed in 
favour of their patrons, in niatters coming judicially before 
them, where their interests may clash with those of other indi- 
viduals before the court j of the difficulty of procuring so many 
persons adequately learned in the laws ; and, finally, of the oc- 
casional warmth and irritability with which they, in open court, 
defend their respective opinions when they differ from each 
other, in a manner sometimes derogatory to the dignity of the 
judicial character. The judges hold their situation for life. 
Their salaries are not suitable to their rank, and the laborious 
duties of their office. That of the President is 3,000/. and 
those of the other judges 1,280/. per annum. Such of them as 
belong to the criminal court have a further salary. Their offi- 
cial dress consists of a purple robe, turned up with crimson 
velvet. They are preceded by four maces, take precedence next 
to the sons of Earls, and rank as the Jirst gentlemen in Scotland. 
Although they are addressed as Lords, their wives do not par- 
ticipate in the title. 

The supreme criminal court is called the Court of Justiciary. 
It is composed of a Lord Justice General, always a Peer of high 
distinction, who seldom attends ; a Lord Justice Clerk ; and 
five Commissioiiers^ who are Lords of Session. The judg-es of 



88 

this court go oa circuits, In different parts oi the kingdom, twice 
a year, during the recess of the court of Session, where they 
exercise a civil jurisdiction. One judge can hold a circuit court. 
The causes which come before this court are tried by a jury of 
fifteen i z majority oi whom mpst wisely decide. Their verdict 
is given ift writing. The prosecutions are conducted by the 
Lord Advocate, the Solicitor-General, and the agent for the 
crown. There is no appeal ftom this court in criminal matters. 
In every case a criminal is allowed the assistance of counsel, 
who, besides examining and cross-examining, are entitled to ad- 
dress the jury, on behalf of their clients, after the counsel for 
the prosecution have finished. There is much in the con- 
stitution of this court to excite admiration. I have been inform- 
ed that the French mean to adopt many of its principles, in 
ameliorating the present state of their criminal courts. The 
costume of the judges of this court is a scarlet robe, turned up 
with white satin \ and they are preceded by silver maces. The 
Lord Justice Clerk has 1,200/. and the commissioners, or minor 
judges, 500/. each per annum. 

The Court of Exchequer is composed of five judges, one of 
whom is the President, with the title of Lord Ciaief Baron, 
and four ordinary Barons. All revenue causes are tried before 
them, and are decided by a jury of twelve ; the only court in 
which civil matters are tried by a jury. The Lord Chief Baron 
has 3,000/. one Baron 1,780/. and the other three Barons 
1,280/. per annum each. 

The Faculty of Advocates is a society of lawyers, corre- 
sponding in some degree with the English Inns of Court. Per- 
sons admitted as advocates must have gone through a regular 
course of civil and Scottish law \ and must have been examined 
in public and private, by a committee of the body. Every ad- 
vocate, on his admission, pays 150/. to the society, part of which 
is applied to support the library belonging to the faculty, which 
I shall have occasion to mention afterwards. The Faculty of 
Advocates is under the controlling authority of the Judges of 
the Court of Session. Many illustrious characters have at va- 
rious periods belonged to this distinguished association. 

The Writers to the Signet practise as attornies in the Courts 
of Session and Justiciary. Before any one is admitted into the 
Society of Clerks to his Majesty's Signet, he must have attend- 
ed the university two years, and have served five years as an ap-; 
prentice to one of its members. He must also pay 100/. as an 
apprentice fee, 10/. to the library belonging to the institution. 



89 

iOO/, when admitted a member. By these salutary provisions, 
the profession of the law is highly respectable in Scotland ^ and 
feWf if any practitioners, who are disposed to avail themselves 
in the most dishonourable manner of the oonfidenoe of their 
clients, can be admitted within its pale. All the members of 
the courts mentioned, and the practitioners, form an incorpora- 
tion, called the College of Justice, who are entitled to many 
valuable privileges and exemptions. 

In their criminal courts the Scotch hold out to us an example 
well worthy of adoption : an advocate is permitted to plead for 
the prisoner ,• and the individual who prosecutes, already a suffer- 
er, is indemnified for the costs of the trial. 

The following is a highly solemn form of oath, as administer- 
ed in the Consistorial, or Commissary Court. The witness 
kneels on his right knee, and, placing his right hand upon one 
of the Holy Evangelists, pronounces these words after the judge : 
*' I renounce all the blessings contained in this holy book if I do 
" not tell the truth-, and may all the curses therein contained be 
" my portion if I do not tell the truth. I swear by Almighty God, 
" and as 1 shall answer to him at the great day of judgment, 
" I will tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the 
" truth," &c. All crimes that occur within the city and liberties 
ofEdinburgh arecognizablebythe magistrates of the city, in their 
Criminal Court where the magistrates have a right to inflict 
arbitrary punishments, and the Lord Provost has the power 
of inflicting death in certain cases. But this jurisdiction is not 
nowexercised, all capital crimes coming before them being refer- 
red to the supreme courts. - 

Not hJving had an opportunity of paying a due proportion of 
attention to the administration of justice, in this its supreme re- 
sidence, I should deem it arrogant to offer an opinion upon a 
subject which I heard much discussed in various parties which I 
visited, and which has excited great public sensation in Scot- 
land — the proposed change in its courts of justice, and the in- 
troduction of a jury in civil cases. 

The most distinguished advocate at the Scottish bar is the 
Right Honourable Henry Erskine, a gentleman of great learn- 
ing, wit, and eloquence, and brother to the late Lord High 
Chancellor of Great Britain, who, upon his elevation to that 
high and dignified oflice, carried with him the affection and ad- 
miration of every gentleman at the British bar, where it was 
his invariable practice to encourage and support, under the shel- 
ter of his exalted talents, the early efforts of the young barris- 
ter, although opposed to the cause which he advocated. The 

M 



90 

Scottish bar has to boast of the talents and reputation of many 
other distinguished men. 

In Scotland the love of letters and literary eminence is so pre- 
dominant, that, as with the Irish, they reign over, soften, and 
embellish the duties of almost every public department, par- 
ticularly the judicial one, and that of the law in general. 
Amongst recent instances of this observation may be adduced 
the Life of Lord Kaimes, by Lord Woodhouselee ; the able 
and learned work of Forsyth, on the Principles of Moral Sci- 
ence J &c. The celebrity of the Lay of the Last Minstrel is 
too extensively known, and too justly appreciated, to derive any 
additional force from the homage of an humble admirer of ge- 
nius. From the author of this exquisite poem I experienced 
much civility during my stay in the capital ; and had the gra- 
tification of finding, that, to the lustre of extraordinary ta- 
lents, Mr. Walter Scott unites the attractive charms of una- 
suming diffidence and refined good breeding ; that the powers 
of the poet and the learning of the scholiast are only equalled 
by his admirable qualities as a husband and a father. The au- 
thor of the Sabbath has also too much affected.the feelings and 
improved the hearts of his readers, not to be entitled to admira- 
tion. These gentlemen, and many others of great literary dis- 
tinction, are all connected with the law. 

The Advocates' Library occupies the ground floor of the Par- 
liament-house, which is under ground. The rooms are dark 
and gloomy, and far from being suitable depositories of a library ~ 
of such distinguished celebrity. Drummond, of Hawthorn- 
den, contributed to it ; and the celebrated Hume was^its libra- 
rian. It consists of between sixty and seventy thousand volumes 
which are lent out in any number to a member of the faculty, 
upon his receipt, and undertaking to restore them at the end of 
the year. In this learned depository are many precious manu- 
scripts, illuminated missals, and records and papers relating to 
Scottish history ; and a fine collection of Grecian, Roman, 
Saxon, English and Scottish coins and medals. This library is 
considered to be equal to the Bodleian, at Oxford, and the Na- 
tional Library, at Paris ; and is inferior to none in Europe, ex- 
cept the Vatican. 

The Parliament-house occupies the south and west angles of 
the square to which it gives its name. The Courts of Session 
and Justiciary sit here ; it also contains the great room in which 
the parliament of Scotland formerly assembled j it is 122 feet 
long, by 49 broad. In the east wall is a fine marble statue, by 



91 

Roubilliac, of the Lord President Forbes, in his robes, erected 
by the Faculty of Advocates. The attitude and expression of 
this statue are wonderfully fine, and well worthy the notice of 
the visiter. In the Parliament-close adjoining is an equestrian 
statue of Charles II. in which there is much spirit ; it was 
placed here after the Restoration, by the magistrates, instead of 
one which they were preparing to erect in honour of Oliver 
Cromwell. 

I was much surprised, in a city so noble, and embellished 
with so many institutions which do honour to humanity, as 
Edinburgh, to find the metropolitan prison for criminals and 
debtors, called the Tolbooth, so deplorably bad, and so unan- 
swerable to its destination. My surprise was increased upon 
learning that it was built by the citizens in 1561, not merely for 
a place of confinement, but for the accommodation of the parl'ia' 
ment and courts tf justice. I visited every part of it, and saw 
nothing. in it but to condemn, except the cleanliness displayed in 
many of the miserable cells, by the prisoners of both sexes. It 
stands in, or rather encumbers and disfigures the middle of the 
High-street, towards the western extremity of it ; a platform 
and gallery project from the north side, upon which criminals 
doomed to die, suffer the sentence of the law, and are sus- 
pended as in England. Executions at Edinburgh are very rare. 
Old Lord Chief-justice Fortescue used to assign a curious reason 
for the law inflicting death more frequently in England than in 
other countries : *' More men are hanged in England in one 
year than in France in seven, because the English have better 
hartes ; the Scotchmen likewise never dare roby but only commit 
larcenies." 

In 1804- and 1805, only two capital punishments were in- 
flicted in Edinburgh; in 1806, none; in 1807, four criminals 
suffered death; and up to February 1808, only one. Of these 
malefactors, only three belonged to the Edinburgh district. A 
curious custom once existed in this city, with regard to the 
public executioner. On every market day, he was authorised 
to go through the market with a brass ladle, or wooden spoon, 
and to fill it from every sack of meal, corn, &c. Early in the 
last century, the magistrates, upon the succession df a new hang- 
man to office, compromised this singular custoipa, which had 
rather too strong a resemblance to robbery, for a pecuniary 
compensation. 

The magistrates, I am informed, have, for some time past, in- 
tended to pull this aged, heavy, and dreary pile, down ; and to 



• 92 

erect a prison more worthy of such a city ; and they cannot 
carry their plan into execution too speedily. There is another, 
a much smaller, but equally objectionable prison, which I visit- 
ed, called the Canongate Tolbooth. 

Close to the first tolbooth is St. Giles's Church, a large Gothic 
fabric, half concealed by several adjoining buildings, and is well 
worthy of attention. The tower is 161 feet high, the summit 
of which is composed of four arches, intersecting each other >, 
and at a. distance resembles an imperial crown. In this church 
James I. addressed his people, on the Sunday preceding his de- 
parture to take possession of the English throne. After the 
service was over, the King rose up, and made a very affecting 
address to his auditors, who were moved to tears by the expres- 
sions of his regard for them, and assurances of frequently revi- 
siting them, and, at all times, of shewing them proofs of his 
princely favour and regard. 

When this church was founded is not known, but it was 
erected into a collegiate church by James III. in 1466 •, and soon 
after the Reformation it was divided into four separate places 
of worship, called the New Church, which is the principal di- 
vision, in which the General Assembly holds its annual meet- 
ings, and the commissioner of which, as the representative of 
majesty, is seated in a chair of state, under a canopy, during the 
sittings. The other divisions are the Old Church, the Tolbooth 
Church, and Haddow's-hole Church, in the interior of which 
there is nothing to notice. The cemetery of St. Giles was on 
the site of Parliament square, and is memorable for containing 
the remains of John Knox. In the body of the church the 
good Regent Murray was buried, who was shot at Linlithgow, 
by Hamilton; and here also are the ashes of the heroic and 
magnanimous Marquis of Montrose, who, in a time of turbu- 
lence,' perished by the hands of the remorseless Covenanters; 
as well as those of the celebrated Napier, the immortal inven- 
tor of logarithms. In the tower are some musical bells, which 
are played upon, as in Holland, every day, for an hour (Sun- 
days excepted). This venerable pile has not participated 
in that laudable spirit of improvement which so striking, 
ly prevails in Edinburgh. It is sadly disfigured by the pet- 
ty buildings which are placed against it, and seem to ad- 
here to it like barnacles upon a ship's bottom. Were it relieved 
from such unworthy associates, it would be a grand and august 
ornament of the city. The paucity of monuments, and those 
little worthy of notice, which are now to be found in Scotland, 



93 

..anuot escape the observation of the traveller. This is no 
doubt owing to the distracted state of the country during and 
long after the Reformation ; and to the denunciations of John 
Knox against church ornaments, and so many badges of popery. 
The learned and elegant Bishop of Gallov^ray, whose Commen- 
tary on the Revelation was celebrated by some lines by Drum- 
mond, of Hawthornden, and supposed to have been an ances- 
tor of Cowper, the Poet, was buried in Edinburgh, but where 
I could not learn. There is a brief account of this learned and 
excellent prelate in Hayley's supplementary pages to his admi- 
rable Life of his friend and favourite Poet, Cowper. 

As the church establishment of' Scotland, and its effects, very 
early arrest the attention of the stranger, I shall, in this stage 
of my narrative, submit the information I have collected, and 
the result of the remarks I made, upon the subject, both in 
Edinburgh, and afterwards in different parts of Scotland which 
1 visited. * 

The progress of the Reformation, rapidly spreading over Eu- 
rope, was accelerated in Scotland by the Regent Arran, who, 
in his first parliament, permitted the laity to read the scriptures 
In their own tongue, by which they were soon enabled to de- 
tect the many absurdities which disfigure the Papal form of 
worship. What was wanting to perfect the work of convic- 
tion was effected by the masculine and daring eloquence of John 
Knox. These united causes soon decided the opinion of the na- 
tion, and the majority of the people formed themselves into a 
body, called the Congregation, and possessed themselves of the 
principal cities of Scotland-; in defiance of all the open and se- 
cret stratagems of Mary of Guise, who succeeded Arran in the 
regency. 

The follovv^ers of Calvin at length succeeded in establishing 
their religion. The following will afford a tolerable specimen 
of the oratorical powers of John Knox, upon the subversion of 
popery in Scotland, When the statue of St. Giles, the tutelar 
saint of Edinburgh, was carried through the streets in proces- 
sion, the populace rose upon and dispersed the priests and 
monks, and broke the statue in pieces ; the event was thus de- 
scribed. by that sturdy and afdent enthusiast : " Dagon was left 
without head or hands ; down goes the cross j off go the sur- 
plices, round caps, and coronets with the crowns. The grey 
friars gaped, the black friars blew, the priests panted and fled } 
md happy was he that got first to the house j for such a sud- 



94 

den fray came never among the generations of antichrist within 
this realm before." 

The following Is a brief sketch of the constitution of the 
Scottish church, in which every act connected with its disci- 
pline, which in other churches would flow from the authority 
of a diocesan bishop, or a convocation of the clergy, is the re- 
sult of the united deliberations of a certain number of clergy- 
men and laymen, acting together, with equal authority, and de- 
ciding every question by a plurality of voices. These laymen 
are called ruling lay elders, of whom there are two or three in 
every parish. The Presbyterian ecclesiastical courts are four, 
as follow : — The highest is the. General Assembly, which might 
with propriety be designated an ecclesiastical parliament, and 
consists of a certain number of ministers and ruling elders, de- 
legated from each presbytery, and of commissioners from the 
royal boroughs and universities. In this assembly, which meets 
once ayear,.>the King presides by a commissioner, who is gene- 
rally a nobleman of high rank, but has no voice in their deli- 
berations. A moderator is chosen from their own body, who 
presides and regulates the proceedings. The ruling elders are 
generally persons of the first rank and talents in the country. 
In questions purely religious no appeal lies from this court. 

Provincial Synods are next in authority, and are composed 
of the members of the several presbyteries within the respective 
provinces, which give names to the synods. The presbyteries 
are composed of all the pastors within a certain district, and one 
ruling elder from each parish, commissioned by his brethren to 
represent, in conjunction with the minister, the session of that 
parish. Their duties are confined to the ordination of pastors, 
the examination and licensing of probationers, rebuking contu- 
macious sinners, &c. * The Kirk Session, the lowest ecclesias- 
tical judicatory, consists of the ministers and elders of the con- 
gregation. Such is the constitution of the Scottish church, by 
which a liberal and enlightened care is taken of the rights and 
consciences of the people, in all those important matters con- 
nected with their happiness here and hereafter. 

The regular established clergy of Edinburgh are twenty-four ; 
of these, three are in the town of Leith, two in the suburb of 
Canongate, and two in the parish of St. Cuthbert. There 
are three places of worship in the capital, and one at Leith, be- 
longing to the Scottish episcopalian church, which are entirely 
independent of the English church, and are superintended by 
bishops of their own, of which there are seven in Scotland. 



95 

There are also three episcopal chapels, one in the Old and two 
in the New Town, where divine service is performed according 
to the English liturgy ; three places for Roman-catholic wor- 
ship, including the chapel at Hoiyrood-house ; and many others, 
belonging to a variety of dissenters and sectaries. No one will 
wonder that the Scottish reformers carried their resentment 
against their enemies so far as to pursue almost any practice that 
was opposite to the usage of their adversaries ; but I think it is 
to be regretted that the organ should have been excluded with 
so much abhorrence from their worship. The common people 
amongst the dissenters, to this hour, call the episcopal chapels 
in Edinburgh, which have organs, the tuhistling kirks. The vo- 
cal talents of the followers of the old established church of Scot- 
land induced me to lament that this grand and solemn instru- 
ment had been thus banished : at the same time, it is fortunate 
that the bagpipes have not been introduced in its room, as haut- 
boys have been in our country churches. That the organ af- 
fects the mind with solemnity, and is an auxiliary to the pulpit, 
only those to whom Nature has been very parsimonious will 
deny. The whole of the Lord's Prayer, I was informed, is sel- 
dom used. The Moderates occasionally introduce parts of it ; 
but the rigid Presbyterian ministers do not even go so far. In 
the established churches tliere are no altars 5 the communion is 
administered on a board or a table. Many of the lower orders 
like a particular cant or whine in their preachers ; in forgier 
times this was called the Gospel soiicht^ or sound ; and the more 
a preacher has of it, the more he is followed. It is whimsical 
enough, that, after the Reformation, the most devout and en- 
thusiastic clergy used to adopt their rhapsodies to the tunes of 
common songs, a few lines of which were engrafted on the holy 
effusion. The following specimen is taken from a collection of 
pieces, printed at Edinburgh, by Andrew Hart, in 1590, under 
the title of " A compendious Bqok of Godly and Spiritual 
Songs, collectit out of sundrie Parts of the Scripture, with sun- 
drie of other Ballats, changed out of prophaine Songs, for 
avoiding of Sin and Harlotrie." 

John come kiss me now, 

John come kiss me now ; 

John come kiss me by and by, 

Anil m;ik na mair adow. 

The Lord thy God I am, 

Th--s):rTohn')d('e3 thee cail ; 



96 

John represents man. 
By grace celestial. 

My prophets call, my preachers cry, 

J&lm come kiss me now j 
John come kiss me by and by. 

And mak na mair adow 

Who is at my windo ? who, who ? 

Go from my windo, go, go ; 
Who calls there, so like a stranger ? 

Go froiri my windc, go> 

Lord ! I am heir ane wretched mortal. 
That for thy mercie does cry and call ; 
Mercic to have thou art not worthisj 
Go from my windo, go. 

It is a curious fact, that there are only ten resident Jews 
in Edinburgh, in which there is no synagogue ; nor is there 
one, I am informed, in the whole country. The person who 
communicated this piece of information added, « but der be 
many neither Jew nor Christian." This circumstance is no 
proof of rhe poverty of the country ; on the contraryj it shews 
that, from the increasing prosperity of the Scotch, the accom- 
modation of the rich Jew is not wanted ; and that the keen 
stratagems by which the humbler Jew exists in other countries 
would be of no avail amongst a people remarkable for their 
acuteness in making bargains. 

Of the Society of Quakers, above seventeen years of age, in 
Scotland, there are only between one hundred and one hun- 
dred and fifty ; and in Edinburgh from forty to forty-five only. 
The number of Catholics in Edinburgh is about fifteen hun- 
dred. That of Easter Communicants is from five to six hun- 
dred. In the Lowlands of Scotland there are about fifty sta- 
tions of Catholic clergy, but only thirty-three priests, and the 
like number of chapels. In the Highlands there are nineteen or 
twenty priests ; and the number of Catholics is supposed to be 
greater there, and in the Hebrides, than in the Lowlands. A 
few years since, the Catholic clergy made a computation of the 
numbers of Catholics in Scotland, and they were taken at 
about twenty-five thousand : since that period, a great number 
of Irish manufacturers have settled in Glasgow and the neigh- 
bouring country ; where the aggregate number is considered 
not to fall short of thirty thousand j and others are evidently 



97 

increasing, notwithstanding the emigrations to Canada, and the 
very great proportion of Catholic young men who entered into 
the army since the war with France. 



CHAPTER IX. 

Anecdote of Handel — organ at Gla.'gczv — ^een Mary* s exclamation—-' 
Scottish fialm-singing — the hoi f fair — theological acuteness of the lo^vj 
Scotch — their de-uotio?i — exemplary conduct of Scottish clergy -■ church 
livings'—an English tythe anecdote— Scottish clergy, hoijj paid—reli- 
gions anecdote — specimens of deniotional eloqvence— Scottish episcopal 
church — the ?naiden — a curious re'.ick- — Edinburgh 'volunteers — Scot' 
tish theatricals — singular theatrical anecdote— Mrs. Siddons — Mack' 
lin—a national change — ?nore theatrical anecdotes, 

IT is related, that when Handel's Messiah was first per- 
formed, the audience were much affected ; and when the cho- 
rus struck up " For the Lord God Omnipotent reigneth," they 
all rose with the King, who happened to be present, as by one 
involuntary motion, and remained standing till the chorus end- 
ed ; and hence arose the fashion of afterwards standing during 
that chorus in future. Handel was so sensible of the effect of 
divine music, that a few days after the performance of the 
above oratorio, he called upon the late Lord Kinnoul, who paid 
him many gratifying compliments upon the elevated pleasure 
which he had afforded the town ; upon which Handel said, 
<« My Lord, I should be sorry if I only entertained them 9 I 
wished to make them better." 

In Holland, where there is the same church establishment as 
in Scotland, I saw several fine organs, particularly the celebrated 
one at Haerlem, which possesses the vox-humana stop. The 
Dutch, in this respect, have a better taste than the Scotch. 
l5efore I quit the subject, I cannot help mentioning that, when I 
afterwards visited Glasgow, I began to think the national preju- 
dice was beginning to yield in favour of sacred music, in conse- 
quence of my observing an organ in one of the churches there ; 
but alas ! this innovation in the rigid discipline of Calvin was 

N 



eensured hy the Presbytery of Glasgow in the following resola- 
tion : " That the Presbytery are of opinion, that the use of or- 
gans, in the public worship of God, is contrary to the law of 
the land, and to the law and constitution of our established 
church ; and therefore prohibit it in all the churches and cha- 
pels within our bounds : and, with respect to the conduct of 
the clergyman in this matter, we are satisfied with his judicial 
declaration, that he will not again use the organ in the public 
worship of God, without the authority of the Church.'* 

The Scotch appear not to have made much improvement in 
their psalm-singing since the time of the unfortunate Mary, if 
I may be permitted to judge of her feelings by my own, and 
also by the following anecdote : — -Upon the arrival of the Queen 
at Holyrood-house, from France, she was received with every 
demonstration of joy, and the musical talents of the capital 
united to greet her with a serenade of vocal and instrumental 
music. This musical gratulation consisted of psalms so wretch- 
edly sung, and so badly accompanied by a number of violins 
and rebecks (an inferior sort of fiddle), that Brantome, who ac- 
companied her Majesty, exclaimed, " He ! quelle musique, et 
quelle repos pour sa nuit." Perhaps, however, my love of mu- 
sic, and particularly sacred instrumental music, may have con- 
siderably influenced me in lamenting the want of it in the Scot- 
tish churches. The energies of piety ought to be strong indeed 
in the soul of that man, who, having been accustomed to 
good music, can listen to the psalm-singing of the Scottish 
church. 

The Sacrament, or, as it is called, the Holy Fair, is admi- 
nistered only once a year in each parish. There is preaching 
all day on the Thursday, as well as on the Sunday and Monday, 
following, and great preparations are made before receiving it. 
The minister of the parish examines his parishioners as to their 
fitness ; and when he is satisfied, I was told he delivers a little 
piece of tin, stamped with the name of the parish, as tokens 
which they must produce before they are permitted to receive 
it. Upon these occasions the church, owing to the immense 
number of communicants, who come from a great distance, re- 
sembles a crowded bee-hive, in bustle ; and in the short inter- 
vals between the times of service, they walk about the church- 
yards or neighbouring fields, or, if they reside near, go home 
and take some slight refreshment, and then return to their devo- 
tion. Frequently the church is so crowded, that the minister 



99 

IS obliged to ascend a moveable pulpit, generally kept for tht 
purpose, in the field, or nearest spacious place. 

It is a matter worthy of remark, that so acute ar€ the lower 
classes of people, and so generally well versed in theological 
discussions, that a clergyman would have just ground to appre- 
hend instant detection were he to offer to his congregation a 
sermon which he had delivered before, or a doctrine which was 
not reconcileable with their established faith ^ and so zealous are 
they in their attendance, upon these solemn occasions, that I 
have frequently seen the aged, who have been too infirm to 
walk, neatly and decently dressed, conducted In a little cart, 
preceded by a son or daughter carefully leading the horse, and 
in this manner proceeding to a distance of several miles to 
church. Owing principally to the scanty dispersion of the po- 
pulation, the kirks, or meetings, are frequently very far re- 
moved from those who wish to attend them ; and it is asto- 
nishing what pilgrimages the Scottish peasants perform upon these 
occasions, their enthusiasm appearing to redouble in propor- 
tion to the distance and difficulty of reaching the place of de- 
votion. , 

The piety of the Scottish clergy is in general only equalled by 
their learning. They every where reside in their own parishes ; 
and, by their instruction and example, dispense the blessings of 
religion, the light of reason, and the offices of humanity and 
benevofence, to all within the range of their operation, though 
it is perhaps to be regretted, that owing, as I have before ob- 
served, to the prodigious extent of some of the parishes, such 
benefits frequently operate at a distance. At one of the meet- 
ings of the general assembly, it appeared by the declaration of 
clergymen, that there are parishes in Scotland from sixteen to 
sixty-six miles In extent. 

The provision for the Scottish clergy of the established reli- 
gion arises in various ways. In most towns it is a teind stipend, 
raised by parochial assessment. In most parishes the minister Is 
paid In corn, viz. so many bolls of wheat, barley, oats, &c. ac- 
cording as the living Is rich or poor ; the average selling price 
of such grain being fixed by a jury of landholders and farmers, 
by which judicious arrangements the minister obtains the value 
of his portion of corn at the price it will sell for that year in 
that district. He has also other advantages, afterwards mention- 
ed, and over and above these teinds. These are what are cal- 
led Free Teinds, by which are meant the teinds, or tithes, of 
any estate or estates in a parish, which have not already been 



iOO 

paid to the minister. If all the telnds, or tithes, have been so 
appropriated, the teind is said to be exhausted, and the minis- 
ter can have no augmentation from that source. 

I could not learn why the whole of the teinds were not, im- 
mediately upon the establishment of Presbyterianism, appropri- 
ated to the support of the clergy ; that they were not is evi- 
dent from these free teinds remaining, subject to be appropriated 
to the use of the clergy, upon application to the Commissioners 
of Teinds ; perhaps it may have originated from, the nobles and 
landholders having, as there is an universal spirit of jobbing 
even in matters relating to religion, reserved them as a douceur 
or subsidy, for assisting (as they unquestionably did assist) in 
establishing Presbyterianisai, and from the clergy prudently ac- 
quiescing at the time. Upon the whole, the Scottish clergy are 
better provided for in. the aggregate, than the English. I be- 
lieve, by Sir William Scott's Bill, it has been ascertained, that if 
the whole income of the Church of England were thrown into 
a common fund, and equally divided amongst the clergy, it 
would not yield to each individual 75/. per annum ; vi^hereas the 
jncome of the Scottish clergy would average each of its mem- 
bers from 1 80/. to 200/. a year. The English clergyman pays 
all taxes ; the Scottish, I am informed, are exempted from the 
house, window, and horse taxes. The English clergy are ob- 
liged to keep their parsonagq-housfis in repair j to rebuild them if 
they fall down ; and their representative is bound to restore any 
dilapidations ; and sometimes they have no glebe. The Scottish 
ministers have houses (called manses) built and kept in repair for 
them by the landholders of the parish, and have always glebe 
land, which, I am informed, cannot be less than five Scottish 
acres of good land ; and in poor soil, twenty or more. They 
have also established a fund^ under the sanction of an act of 
parliament, about fifty years ago, as a provision for their wi- 
dows, who, by the payment of a, small sum, enjoy a pension for 
their lives ; and their children also receive a. sum of money. 
The annat, or half a year's benefice, over and above what was 
due to the deceased minister himself for his incumbency, is also 
divided into two equal parts, of which one goes to the widow, 
and the other amongst the children, per capita. 

Thus to regulate the claims of the clergy upon the laity, for 
fhat support to which they are justly entitled, is as distinguish- 
able for its wisdom as for its justice. It is well calculated to 
prevent similar animosities to those which too frequently exist 
fjetween the clergy and their parishioners in my own country, in 



lOi 

consequence of the present state of the tithe-laws. Amongst 
many instances of this which might be adduced, I will mention 
one which came within my own knowledge. An English cler- 
gyman, exasperated at the conduct of some farmers belonging to 
his parish, for not complying with a composition which he of- 
fered, demanded, and actually took, his tithes in kind ; which 
so inflamed the minds of the farmers, that for a long time they 
would not attend the service in the parochial chuch when it was 
performed by this clergyman. The farmers are almost always 
averse to any increase in the payment of tithes, when raised by 
the clergyman ; and exhibit much more disgust, on such an 
occasion, than they do in submitting to a composition, however 
heavy, when offered by a lay impropriator. 

The livings in Scotland are very seldom less than 80/, and 
not more than 400/. per annum. Every clergyman is bound to 
reside, and, in consequence, no curate is required or allowed. 
In Scotland there is no holy sinecure. As the clerical duties can- 
not be delegated, they afford constant occupation for the mi- 
nister, who, in their discharge, would think himself and the 
sanctity of his function insulted and degraded were any remu- 
neration offered by those who become the objects of his pious at- 
tentions. 

The manner in which the holy office of the highly beneficed 
clergyman is frequently delegated, in England, to a poor and 
half-famished curate, calls aloud for reform. I am credibly in- 
formed that a curate in the Isle of Wight cleans the boots, and 
attends to the horses, of his sacerdotal master. When all 
these circumstances are considered, and also the difference of 
expense between the two countriesj the Scottish clergymen will 
be little entitled to the illiberal remark which I have often heard 
in England made upon theni, that their provision was so poor 
that no respectable man would willingly suffer his son to become 
a member of the Scottish ministry, and that it must be neces- 
sarily filled in general with ignorance and vulgarity. It was a 
singular trait in the mind of Johnson, that, during his tour in 
Scotland, he felt such an aversion to attend the service of the 
Scottish church. When solicited to hear that literary luminary. 
Principal Robertson, preach, he said, " I will hear him if he 
will get up in a tree and preach, but I will not give a sanction, 
by my presence, to a Presbyterian assembly." 

I was highly gratified in hearing a sermon delivered atone of the 
episcopalian churches, in the Old Town, by theRev.Mr;i(iAlIison,a 



iC2 

Scotchman, the well-known author of Essays on the Nature and 
Principles of Taste, and the brother-in law of the celebrated 
Dr. Gregory. I never heard the Lord's Prayer delivered with 
more affecting emphasis, or a sermon in which the classical ele- 
gance of the scholar, the pathetic eloquence of the orator, and 
the piety of the divine, were more eminently and effectively 
displayed. In the course of his sermon he moved many of his 
congregation to tears by the most feeling allusion to a heavy do- 
mestic affliction, — the painful uncertainty of his family respect- 
ing the fate of the heroic Colonel Macleod in Egypt, a brother 
of Mrs. Gregory's. A few days afterwards it was officially aia- 
nounced that he had perished gallantly in the service of his 
country, in that distant region, where, as the eloquent minis- 
ter observed, " his ashes were ungathered to the sepulchre of 
his forefathers." That my readers may form some conception 
of the style of Mr. Alison's devotional eloquence, I submit to 
them the following beautiful extract from a sermon which he 
preached on the death of Sir William Forbes, of Pitsligo, Bart. — 
*^ When we follow to the grave the lowest and most obscure of 
our brethren, we feel the importance of these words of the 
Spirit. It is sad to part with any human being to whom we 
have been accustomed. It is solemn to think where it is the in- 
visible spirit is gone. And the still ear which has heard, with a 
kind of awful sympathy, the last sound that falls upon the cof- 
fin of the dead, listens with rapture to the mighty voice which 
then speaks to us from Heaven, and which gives us the only 
consolation that our prophetic nature can receive. He (Sir 
William Forbes) looked forward upon life, not only as the 
theatre of Time, but as the school of Immortality. It was from 
this high discipline that, in the years of inexperience, no illu- 
sions of the world, and no seduction of example, were ever 
able to detain him amid the sordid scenes of youthful dissipa- 
tion ; and that, although his early years were passed in that 
dark age of our country when infidelity was fashionable, and 
when the guilty hand of Genius was shaking all the foundations 
of human faith and hope, no vanity of youth, and no authority 
of age, ever induced him to let go one principle of his religious 
faith, or to relax one spring of the ambition of virtue." 

The Scottish Episcopacy has no fund of maintenance except 
the voluntary contributions of their congregations, and the 
seal-rents. Two years since a subscription was set on foot by 
the Duko of Buccleugh, (whose munificent and public spirit 
has been so frequently displayed,) and other noblemen and gen- 



103 



ttemen, for the purpose of purchasing property, the rents of 
which were to be applied for the support of the bishops *, and 
some progress has been made in the liberal project. The fol- 
lowing is the present state of the Scottish Episcopal Church : — 



Diocese of Edinburgh. 

Right Rev. D. Sandford, D. D. in 
Edinburgh, Bishop. 
/'Arch. Alison 
T-j- u L / Rofc>t. Muirhead 
Edinburgh < ja^g^ Walker 

f Simon Reid 
Stirling George Gleig 

Diocese of Glasgoiv. 

Rt. Rev. Wm. Abernethy Drum- 

mond. Bishop. 

fRob. Adam 

f\,, J Falconer 

Glasgow < „r D .1 J 
» I Wm. Routledge 

LAIex. Jameson. 
Diocese of Dumblane of Fife. 



Muthil 

Alloa 

St. Andrews 

Cnpar 

Pitienweem 

Cruden 

Peterhead 



I 

Longside < 

Lonmay 

Fyvie 

TurefF 

Pitsiigo 

Banff 

Portsoy 

Arradoul 

Forgue 

Meiklefolla 

Old Deer 

Monymusk 



Bishop* 

Alex. Cruickshank 

Wm. Robb 
Wm. Nicoll 
David Low 
John Stephen 
Patrick Torry 
W. Laing 
John Cuming 



Wm. Sangster 
Alex. Christie 
Jo. Cruickshank 
John Gleig 
James Milne 
John Cardno 
Alex. Shand 
And. Ritchie 
James Innes 
Alex. Christie' 
Alex. Cay. 



Diocese of Moray. 

Right Rev. Alex. Jolly, at Frasers 
burgh. Bishop. 



Elgin Hugh Buchan 

Keith John Murdoch 

Huntly James Walker 



Diocese of Ross. 

Right Rev. And. Macfarlane, in In- 
verness, Bishop. 
Ord Wm. Patterson 

Appin Donald Maccoll 



Diocese of Dunkeld. 

Rt. Rev. Jonathan Watson, at Lau- 
rencekirk, Bishop. 



Forfar 
Kirrymuir 

Meigle 

Perth 

Straihtay 
Murthle 



John Skinner 
John Buchan 
David Moir 
C Alex. Walker 
iR. Fenwick 
Jo. Robertson 
Ja. Somerville. 



Diocese of Brechin. 



Rt. Rev. J. Strachan, in Dundee^ 
Bishop. Wm. Milne, Assistant. 
Alex. Nicol 
Ja. Somerville 
Pet. Cushnie 
Peter Jolly 
Robert Spark 
CGeo. Garden 
i Rob. Memes 
Wm. Murray 



Arbroath 

Brechin 

Montrose 

Lochlee 

Drumlithie 

Stonehaven. 

Muchalls 



Diocese of Aberdeen. 



Right Rev. 



in Aberdeee, 



Bishop; 
C Roger Aitkin 
\ Wm. Skinner 
-Oldmeldrum Nath. Grieve* 



Aberdeen 



104 

Having heard that the Maiden, a Scottish instrument of de- 
capitation, which was invented many years since, and is said to 
have furnished the French with the plan of their guillotine^ 
was still to be seen in a room under the Parliament-house, cu- 
riosity led me, as I was passing that way, to endeavour to find 
it out. 1 could not help smiling upon my asking an old man, 
who appeared to be on duty at the place, where the maiden was, 
to hear him gravely reply, that he did not know there ever was 
one in £c,xibui-gh in all his time. 

Indeed, for s me time, no one appeared to know where the 
maiden was ; at ler.gth I heard that it was in the possession of 
the Societv of Aritiquaries, where I at length found it. In the 
rooms belongir.;? to this institution, are several valuable curiosi- 
ties, at present badly arranged and kept, consisting of ancient 
and foreign annr.ur. weapons, and several Roman antiquities 
and coins. In one chamber there is a collar, with this curious 
inscription upon it : " Alexander Steuart, found guilty of death, 
for teft at Perth, and gif^ted by the justiciars as a perpetual ser- 
vant to Sir John Areskine, of Alva, the 5th Dec. 1701." This 
collar was fastened round the neck of the culprit, who exchan- 
ged death for slavery in this extraordinary manner. There is 
also an ancient Hiland querne, for grinding oats. The maiden 
is in a cellar under the rooms ; the frame is something like a 
painter's easel, about ten feet high, having grooves in its inner 
edges, in which an axe, heavily surmounted with lead, was 
placed, and which fell with precision, upon being disengaged 
from the peg which held it at top, upon the head of the culprit, 
which was fastened upon a cross bar, about three feet and a half 
from the bottom. The axe of this instrument is a square, that 
of the French guillotine being a square, cut diagonally ; it was 
frequently used at Halifax in the time of Queen Elizabeth. It 
is a curious coincidence, that the Regent Morton, who first in- 
troduced the maiden into Edinburgh, that M. Guillotine, who 
improved, and caused it to be used in France, under his own 
name, and that Brodie, who induced the magistrates of Edin- 
burgh to adopt the new drop, now generally used in England, 
for the execution of criminals, all severally perished by the in- 
struments of death which they themselves had introduced. 

Whilst I was at Edinburgh, I had the good fortune of being 
present in the Links, or meadows, at a review of the Royal 
Edinburgh first regiment of Volunteers, which was actually the 
first raised in the island, under the command of Lord Justice 
Clerk Hope, to whose arduous exertions and eloquence the 



105 

country is much Indebted for keeping alive that spirit which, in 
the moment of apprehended danger, first impelled so many citi- 
zens to quit their tranquil station in life to defend their country. 
The regiment mustered about five hundred effective men, pre- 
sented a very fine appearance, and went through their manoeu- 
vres in a soldier like manner. There are other volunteer regi- 
ments belonging to Edinburgh. Every county, city, and town, 
in Scotland, have raised volunteers. I have ever entertained the 
highest admiration for this service, convinced as I am, that, in 
spite of all the petty sarcasms which have attempted to bring 
the volunteer force into disesteem, and to make the volunteers 
dissatisfied with themselves, whenever the hour of real peril 
arrives, their country will feel their consequence, and their re- 
vilers will be glad to take shelter in their rear. When the cha- 
racter of our enemy is considered, only the infatuated can 
doubt of the importance of a national defence •, — an enemy 
most ably and prophetically described by one, whose transcen- 
dent genius and eloquence, though far removed to a distant re- 
gion, reflect lustre upon his country. I allude to the animating 
and prophetic speech delivered by Sir James Mackintosh, at a 
general meeting of the Loyal North Britons, In August, 1 803 : — 
" The greatest means of destruction," said he, " are now di- 
rected against us, which were ever collected against the exis- 
tence of a civilized state, animated by the fiercest malignity, 
and, I ought to add, guided by the most consummate skill. 
Every thing will be done that political arts and military talent can. 
effect. We have to do with an enemy who is not deterred by 
difiiculties or dangers : he will not content himself with one sort 
of attack : he will not be driven from his purpose by the de- 
feat of some attempts : nothing will be Ifeft undone for the de- 
struction of the only country that stands between freedom and 
universal tyranny. All this is not the result of temporary and 
accidental circumstances ; it arises from a permanent state of 
things. We have to prepare for a long siege." — If, menaced as 
we are with invasion, any result from the late disastrous cam- 
paign in South America could at all reconcile us to the disgrace 
which our military character sustained there, it would be the 
reflection that an armed population obtained a triumph over a 
regular and an invading army. 

The removal of the court at the Union, and the rigid ad- 
herence to Presbyterianism, have conspired to render theatrical 
representation very little the subject of public patronage in Scot- 
land, although every effort has been made to render it a source 

O 



106 

(5£ fashionable amusement. At one period, the Lords Ellbank, 
Monboddo, and Ankerville, Lords of Session, Mr. Baron Stew- 
art, Mr. Alexander Maxwell, Mr. Callender, and other dis- 
tinguished personages, became the proprietors of the theatre, 
from a desire of raising it into celebrity by their patronage and 
superintendence. How far devotional bigotry has interfered 
will appear from a very singular fact which occurred in 1756, 
when, a few days after the representation of Douglasy upon its 
being known that Mr. Home, a clergyman of the established re- 
ligion, had composed it, the religion of the country was de- 
clared to be in danger ; and the Presbytery of Edinburgh sus- 
pended, prb tempore^ all the ministers within their jurisdiction 
who had even attended its representation, and issued letters to 
the other Presbyteries, recommending them to proceed with 
similar violence against such of their own clergymen who had 
offended in the like manner. The play was publicly denounced, 
and the theatre was stigmatised as " the Temple of Lies." The 
injunctions contained in this address " warn, exhort, obtest, and 
plead with all within their bounds, to discourage the illegal and 
dangerous entertainments of the stage \ and Jto restrain those 
under their influence from frequenting such seminaries of vice 
and folly." 

Upon this subject the Presbytery of Glasgow issued equally 
extraordinary resolutions : — " The Presbytery having seen a 
printed paper, entitled * An Admonition and Exhortation of the 
Reverend Presbytery of Edinburgh,' which, among other evils, 
bewails the extraordinary and unprecedented countenance given 
of late to the playhouse in that city ; and having good reasons 
to believe that this refers to the following melancholy but noto- 
rious facts, that one, who is a minister of the church of Scot- 
land, did himself write and compose a stage play, entitled <The 
Tragedy of Douglas ,-' and got it to be acted in the theatre at 
Edinburgh j and that he, with several other ministers of this 
church, was present, and some of them oftener than once, at 
the acting of the same play, before a numerous audience ; the 
Presbytery, deeply affected with this new and strange appearance^ 
&c." Whilst the Presbytery of Haddington was seriously deli- 
berating upon the fate of its accomplished and elegant author, 
who was guilty of having written one of the most refined and 
affecting dramas of the age, held up in our schools as the model 
of pure and classical imitation of nature, and well calculated to 
improve the dramatic taste of his country, Mr. Home very 
wisely sent in his resignation, and has survived the absurd pre- 



107 

judices of his countrymen, who now regard him with as much 
pride and admiration as they formerly did witii abhorrence ; 
and when I was at Edinburgh this venerable ornament of his 
country was still alive, although from great age, and consequent 
debility of mind, only his body could be said to be so. 

As a proof how soon the Scotch became ashamed of such 
narrow-minded prejudices, and that the reign of bigotry and 
folly can endure but for a short space of time, as extraordinary 
as the above story is, it is a fact, that when that illustrious ac- 
tress, Mrs. Siddons, first appeared at Edinburgh, the business of 
the ecclesiastical court was regulated by her nights of acting, 
and the chief officers were obliged to fix their days of business 
in the evenings of which she did not perform, in consequence 
of the younger members, clergy, as well as laity, taking their 
seats at three o'clock in the afternoon when she performed. 

The Theatre, which stands on the east side of the northern 
extremity of the bridge, is a very inadequate building in its ex- 
terior, and the surprise which it excites is not much diminished 
upon entering it. The trellis- work of the lower part of the stage- 
boxes is open, which has a very light and pleasing effect. During 
my stay at Edinburgh, The Man of the World was performed to 
crowded houses. This circumstance may be considered as exhibit- 
ing a new trait in the character of the Scotch. When this play was 
first acted, thepartof 5zV Pertinax Macsycophanty which was intend- 
ed, with the keenest satire, to represent the Scottishcharacter, and 
to affix to it the most abject and degrading servility, excited the 
highest indignation amongst that people. It is said indeed (if my 
memory serve me correctly) that the life of Macklin, the author, 
was in peril in consequence of this production. The Scotch 
have now, however, lived down the severity of the censiu"e j 
they have shewn, upon occasions too numerous to detail, and 
too well known to render it necessary, that they can reach ho- 
nour and opulence without servility, and that to brilliant genius 
and profound learning they can add manly frankness and an ex- 
alted spirit of independence. The Man of the World is always 
played to crowded houses ; and many of those speeches of Sir 
Pertinaxy under the lash of which every Scotchman formerly 
writhed, now excite only laughter and applause. Conscious, if 
the satire was ever merited, that it now no longer applies, they 
regard it with the same good humour as we do *' The truehorn 
Englishman" of Daniel de Foe. Many distinguished actors 
have played upon the boards of this theatre, which may be 



lOS 

considered as the high road to an introduction to a London au- 
dience. 

A custom once existed here, as it formerly did in England, 
and as I found it still exists, even to a degree of expensive in- 
convenience, in Holland, of giving douceurs to servants upon 
every visit. The origin of its abolition in Scotland is related 
to have arisen in the following singular manner: — " About twen- 
ty years ago, the practice of giving vails to servants universally 
prevailed throughout Scotland. Nothing can be conceived 
meaner on the part of a master than permitting his servants to 
be paid by others ; nothing more inhospitable towards guests 
than suffering them in a manner, to pay for their entertainment. 
Nothing can tend more to make servants rapacious, insolent, 
and profligate, than allowing them to display their address in 
extracting money from the visitors of their masters ; yet this 
custom had crept in universally. Its bad effect had already been 
severely felt, when an outrage of the footmen in the playhouse 
displayed the evil in so strong a light as to occasion its redress. 
Although it is the province of the stage to lash the vices and ri- 
dicule the follies of the people in all ranks, yet, soon after the 
farce of High Life below Stairs was published, the footmen, 
taking it in high dudgeon that a farce reflecting on their frater- 
nity should be exhibited, i-esolved that it should be no moi-e per- 
formed. Accordingly, upon the second night of its being an- 
nounced in the bills as a part of the entertainment, Mr. Love, 
one of the managers, came upon the stage, and read a letter con- 
taining the most violent threatenings, both against the actors 
and the house, in case the piece should be represented ; declaring 
that above seventy people had agreed to sacrifice famey honour^ 
•z.V)A profit y to prevent it. Notwithstanding this fulmination, the 
performers were ordered to go on. That servants might not be 
kept in the cold, nor induced to tipple in the adjacent alehouses, 
while they waited for their masters, the humanity of the gentry 
had provided that the upper gallery should afford, gratis, admis- 
sion to the servants of such persons as were attending the thea- 
tre. Yet did the only part of the spectators which were ad- 
mitted for nothing, presume to forbid the entertainment of their 
masters, because it exposed the vices of their own order. No 
sooner was the piece begun than a prodigious noise was heard 
from the footman's gallery : they were ordered to be silent, but 
ineffectually. Many of the gentlemen discovered, among the 
noisy crew, their individual servants. When these would not 
submit to authority, their masters, assisted by others in the 



109 

house, went up to the gallery j and it was not till after a battle, 
and that the servants were fairly overpowered and thrust out of 
the house, that quietness could be restored. So daring an insult 
made it not only necessary that the servants should be deprived 
of the freedom of the playhouse, which they had so grossly a- 
bused, but that the practice of giving vails, so pernicious to their 
morals, should be abolished. The gentlemen of the county of 
Aberdeen had the merit of being the fii'st to make a resolution 
neither to give nor allow their servants to receive any money 
from their visitors, under the name of drink-money, card- 
money, &c. and, instead of it, to augment their wages. They 
were followed by the gentlemen of the county of Edinburgh, 
by the Faculty of Advocates, and other respectable public bo- 
dies, and the practice was utterly exploded over all Scotland, ''—?- 
History of Edmburghj b. iii. p. 374. 



CHAPTER X. 

H^ho police office—robleries — lighting of Edinburgh—^supplies of muater—" 
coals — -frauds — the Ballantym press— the lunatic asylum— —the charity 
house— the golf— the cadeest^a musical banquet — the racer— national 
prize dancing — delicacy in danger-— -bagpipe anecdotes— harps— ths 
harpers'' seat — king Dct^id—rScottish melodies — -queen Mary and Pur- 
cel — cold and ranu. 

A STRANGER, who wishes to see a display of the pe- 
culiar manners of the Scotch, will be gratified by visiting the 
Police Office of Edinburgh. This office, so important to the 
citizens of Edinburgh, was established by act of parliament, on 
the 17th July, 1805 ; the magisterial chair of which is ably 
and honourably filled by John Taite, Esq. as Judge of Police. 
The powers of this magistrate are very extensive. He has au- 
thority to commit, either to the Tolbooth of Edinburgh, or to 
Bridewell, persons convicted of offences against the peace, 
health, and comfort of the city, and of petty depredations, enu- 
merated in the act, for a space not exceeding sixty days-, and 



110 

when persons are committed to bridewell, he may prescribe the 
kind of labour in which such persons may be employed, con- 
sistent with the regulations of that prison. He has also power 
to fine any person, convicted of such offences, in any sum not 
exceeding 4'Os. and to give judgment in damages for any sum 
not exceeding 3/. with the expenses in either case. The fines 
iand penalties so recovered are paid to the collector or collectors, 
appointed by the general commissioners, or to persons authorised 
by him or them to receive them ; one half of which is to be 
distributed amongst the officers of police, watchmen, and 
others, employed in the execution of the Police Act, in the dis- 
cretion of the superintendant ; and the other half, or as much 
as is necessary, to the treasurer for the bridewell, for the aliment 
and clothing of persons committed to that prison. In the dis- 
charge of his duties the Judge is indefatigable. The beneficial 
effects of this establishment to the city, under such direction, 
will appear from the following statement, which I extracted from 
the book containing the proceedings of this court : — 

The number of causes tried In the first year, ending 7 _ „ 

I7th July, i8o6, were - . . . ^^'^i^ 

Ditto, ending 17th July, 1807 . - - IJ965 

Therefore the number of offences committed, and cognizable 
by this court, and prosecuted there, were, in the second year of 
the establishment of this new system of police, 893 less than in 
the first year. In the present Judge of Police I found another 
instance of that passion for literature so observable in the Bench 
and Bar of Scotland. Mr. Taite, like his much-respected and 
distinguished brother magistrate in England, Henry Jame Pye, 
Esq. Poet Laureat, has at various times gratified the public 
with several elegant effusions of poetry, amongst which his 
Tears of Genius, prefixed to an edition of Gray's work, 
and the Cave of Mora, has excited considerable approba- 
tion. 

The establishment of this new system of police has led to the 
reduction o£ the toiun-guard (rotn one hundred and twenty-six 
men, who were raised for the defence of the city, to one officer 
and thirty men, who now form a guard for the Provost. The 
town-guard is of very ancient origin ; it was first formed from 
the fears of the citizens of an attack from the English, after the 
unfortunate battle of Flowden, in which James IV. and most of 
the Scottish nobilil-y perished. There is also, a society of sixty 
constables annually elected amongst the merchants and trades- 



Ill 

men. In no city is there more security from robbery, thao 
Edinburgh, a circumstance which may be attributed to the 
natural honesty of the people, as well as the vigilance of the 
police j for few cities are worse lighted, or afford, in conse- 
quence, a greater facility to depredation. I remember one night 
in the latter end of July, when it was remarkably dark, that my 
hands were of as much use as my eyes, and occasionally more 
serviceable, in enabling me to find my way from George's-square 
to St. Andrew's-street, a distance of nearly a mile over the 
North Bridge. No lamps are Ughted but in the winter, and 
then with great parsimony. The city is tolerably well supplied 
with water. The reservoir on the Castle-hill is well worth 
seeing ; it contains about 300 tons of water ; there is another 
lately erected near Heriot's Hospital, which contains nearly the 
same quantity. When the fountain-head, at Corniston, which 
is about three miles and a half south-west of the city, and about 
forty-four feet above the reservoir on the Castle-hill, is full, the 
great pipe of the latter discharges into the reservoir in town 2 10 
Scots pints per minute, or nearly 840 English pints. Private 
families are accommodated with pipes in their own houses, up- 
on payment of a small annual sum to the magistrates. Many of 
the inhabitants of the Old Town, ori account of the height of 
the houses, are supplied with water by persons who live by 
bringing it in small barrels on their backs. It is in contempla- 
tion to introduce a copious spring of water from the side of the 
Lothian-road, westward of the Castle, which at present runs en- 
tirely to waste. This spring may be most beneficially applied 
in watering the streets in hot weather ; in cleansing the public 
markets, which sadly require it ; and the surplus may be used 
for affording occasional supplies to the common sewers. If I 
might be permitted, I should strongly recommend the stone 
pipes made at Mr. Hill's circular masonry, in London, as the 
most cheap, pure, and durable conveyance of the water. 

Coal is the only fuel used in Edinburgh, with which, from 
the neighbouring pits, it is well supplied. Coals brought to town 
are always weighed, at a weigh-house adjoining the town-gate; 
each cart ought to carry twelve hundred weight. As knavery 
is sometimes practised here, as well as in London, by the coal- 
dealers, it frequently happens, upon examination, that they 
have been discovered to have only ten hundred weight. The 
carriers sometimes have been known to drop some of the coals 
on their way to the city, which were taken up by some comrade 



112 

and then make up the weight by pouring water over the 
rest. 

Very near the Police-office is the Exchange, on the north 
side of the High street. This building is in a square form, 
"svith a court in the centre ; it is sixty feet high towards the 
street, and one hundred behind, owing to the declivity of the 
ground. Although this building offers every convenience to 
the merchants to transact their business under cover, inveterate 
habit induces them to prefer the scite of the ancient cross, in 
the open street, where they assemble in all weathers. This 
building exhibits the date of the improvement of Edinburgh ; it 
was erected in 1753, at which time the city covered the same 
space of ground as it had done two centuries before. Near to 
the Exchange is the Weigh-house, in which the standard weights 
are kept, for weighing all kinds of goods, at the requisition of 
the inhabitants, and which attracts attention on account Of its 
excessive deformity. It is an execrable nuisance and disfigura- 
tion to the street in which it stands. 

In beauty and splendour of printing Edinburgh has establish- 
ed a reputation even superior to Paris. I had great pleasure in 
visirirg the printing-ofHces of Ballantyne and Co. which are 
very extensive, and remarkable for the great neatness and order 
which appear ^n evTy part of them. For the claims to typo- 
gra;-^' -v ■.;•': ..e.; Oie Scottish metropolis is indebted to the 
indefatigable and scientific exertions of Mr. James Ballantyne, a 
gentleman originally bred to the law, but who, conceiving that 
the art of printing was susceptible of great improvement, di- 
rected his mind to the subject, and, by that patient and unre- 
mitting ardour which distinguishes his countrymen in all their 
pursuits, has succeeded in bringing it to its present state of per- 
fection. The many valuable works which issue from this press 
owe much of their external decoration not only to the beauty of 
the letters, but the singular rich blackness of the ink, in the 
preparation of which Mr. Ballantyne has spent much time. 
Many of the English booksellers send their works to be printed 
at Edinburgh, where there are now 140 printing presses em- 
ployed. The following is a correct statement of the progress 
of printing in Edinburgh :— • 

Printing-houses in Edinburgh in 1765 6 

1790 21 

1800 30 

1805 40 



lis 

A stranger who contemplates the number of charitable in- 
stitutions, whichdo so muchto ^lonourthe Scottishmetropolis, cal- 
culated to mitigate if not remove most of the calamities whichpoor 
human nature is exposed to, feels no little degree of surprise upon 
finding that there is no suitable public asylum for the wretched 
maniac : this defect is however about to be reaiedied. A very 
feeling and eloquent address, and able plans, have been sub- 
mitted to the public for the promoting subscriptions, and for the 
erection of this necessary establishment ; and his Majesty's war- 
rant has issued, creating the contributors to it into a body cor- 
porate. The plan was greatly indebted to the noble exertions 
of Sir John Sinclair, Bart, when Chairman of the Committee of 
the House of Commons ; and to the Hon. Henry Erskine, 
when Lord Advocate of Scotland ; and to other distinguished 
characters. A considerable part of the money actually raised 
has been advantageously appropriated in the purchase of ground, 
commodiously situated in the vicinity of Edinburgh. When 
the proposed building, the plan of M'hich, in my humble opi- 
nion, is admirably adapted for the purpose, is once erected, 
there is the greatest probability, from the report of the credits 
and expenditure of the most distinguished asylumns of this de- 
scription in various parts of England, that it will soon be enabled 
to maintain itself. The acknowledged humanity and generosky 
of the inhabitants of Edinburgh and its environs will not re- 
gard this benevolent project with indifference ; a project so well 
calculated to afford all the possible means of recovery by medi- 
cal skill, or alleviation by tender and attentive care, more espe- 
cially as medical men of extensive practice have given it as their 
opinion that the lunatic affection is increasing. In England and 
Wales, the number of lunatics and insane persons in gaols, 
houses of correction, poor-houses, and houses of industry, as 
far as the account could be made up, returned to parliament in 
1807, amounted to four thousand nine hundred and fifteen: 
from Scotland, I understand, no regular return is made. 

How ably and carefully such an institution, when once com- 
menced, is likely to be conducted, will appear from the good 
management which, under many and great disadvantages, is 
displayed in the charity-house at present used as a bedlam ; in 
which the patients, forty-two in number, appeared to be as 
clean and as comfortable as so forlorn and deplorable a disorder 
would admit. The superintendent appeared, from the order 
which I observed in the house, to have availed himself of that 
:;imiditv which is well known to attend insanity, without any act 

P 



114 

of unnecessary coercion ; and great credit is due to all who have 
any share in attending to this depository of hopeless horror. 

On the downs where the volunteers were reviewed I had fre- 
quent opportunity of seeing an amusement peculiar to this coun- 
try, called the Golf. The art of this highly favourite game 
consists in parties of one, two, three, or more, on each side, en- 
deavouring to strike a hard ball, about the size of a tennis-bail, 
into one hole, or several small holes, successively, distant from 
each other about a quarter of a mile, with the fewest strokes. 
There are several bats or clubs used in the course of the game ; 
that by which the ball is struck is formed of ash, slender and 
elastic, about four feet long, crooked in the head, faced with 
horn, and having lead run into it. The Scotch are in general 
extremely expert in this exercise ; and so highly was it former- 
ly esteemed, that the dress usually worn on the occasion, and 
one of the bats, form the decorations of many a male in a fami- 
ly-picture. A company of golfers was established in 1744. 
This game is supposed to have been suggested in consequence 
of the large flats along the margin of the sea, so frequent along 
the Scottish shore, affording great facility for playing it. 

I was sorry to learn that the Cadees, formerly a most useful 
and trust- worthy body of men, who were, almost a century back, 
incorporated by the Town Council, and invested with the sole 
right and privilege of being news-criers and pamphlet-sellers, 
and who afterwards became errand-men, remarkable for their 
despatch and integrity, have nearly disappeared. Dr. Smollet, 
in Humphry Clinker, thus describes them : — " There is at 
Edinburgh a society or corporation of errand-boys, called caw- 
dies, who ply in the streets at night with paper lanthorns, and 
are very serviceable in carrying messages. These fellows, though 
shabby in their appearance, and rudely familiar in their ad- 
dress, are wonderfully acute ; and so noted for fidelity, that 
there is no instance of a cawdy's having betrayed his trust. 
Such is their intelligence, that they know not only every indi- 
vidual of the place, but also every stranger, by that time he has 
been four-and-twenty hours in Edinburgh ; and no transaction, 
even the most private, can escape their notice." Then follows 
a very curious and whimsical account of a sort of saturnalian 
dinner, given by these cawdies in his time ; Cawdie Frazer in 
the chair. — The porters who attend at the different hotels, and 
in the streets, have the reputation of activity and honesty. 

Though the cadees, as they are now called, have declined, 
there is another body of men, whose ancient character, skill, 



115 

and celebrity, the Scottish gentry seemed determined to per- 
petuate. 

Having mentioned to some of my friends my enthusiastic ad- 
miration of music, I was promised a rich treat, as the competi- 
tion of the Scottish pipers was at hand. That no part of this^ 
musical banquet might pass untasted, I was pressingly invited to 
the rehearsal in the ancient Assembly-room, before the judges, 
and informed that it was a great favour to be admitted. I shall 
never forget it ! As soon as the prize-judges were seated, the 
folding-doors opened. A Highland piper entered, in full tartan 
array, and began to press from the bag of his pipes, which were 
decorated with long pieces of ribband, sounds so loud and hor- 
rible, that to my imagination, they were comparable only to 
those of the eternally tormented. In this manner he strutted 
up and down with the most stately march, and occasionally en- 
raptured his audience, who expressed the influence of his in- 
strument by loud and reiterated plaudits. For my part, so 
wretched is this instrument to my ears, that I could not discover 
any difference^ in regard to expression, between " The Gather- 
ing of the Macdonalds" and «' Abercrombie's Lament,"* each 
sound being to me equally depressive, discordant, and horrible. 
Several, and, as I was informed, highly approved performers, 
followed with a few and short, but welcome intervals, filled up 
by Highland dancers, who favoured us with some reels, in which 
agility, without the slightest accompaniment of grace, seemed 
the only object of attainment. I observed that these poor fel- 
lows had good reason to be jealous of the pipers, as their perfor- 
mances were suffered to be of very short duration, and the at- 
tention gladly removed from their nimble activity, occasionally 
accompanied by a peculiar shrill whoop, to the dismal drone of 
the pipes, which Butler has so well and so wittily described : — 

Then bagpipes of ifi? loudest drones, 
With snuffling broken-winded tones, 
Whose blasts of air, in pockets shut, 
Sound filthier than from the gut, 
And made a viler noise than Swine 
In windy weather, when they whine. 

HUDIBRAS. 

Whether in derision or not, I do not pretend to say, but Dr. 
Johnson is reported to have appeared very fond of the bagpipe, 

* Lament is a sort of dirge, in commemoration of deceased persons of 
eminence i and some airs aic called ports. 



116 

and used often to stand for some time with hi? ear close to the 
great drone. 

Most of the pipers were very fine men, and looked to great 
advantage in their full costume. Many of them had gained 
prizes ; and, in the hope of procuring further honours, had 
come from very distant parts. One came from Mull, and a- 
nother from Sky. I believe it might have been three hours that 
common politeness compelled me to endure the distraction of 
this preliminary trial of skill ; and I left the room with nearly 
the same sensations with which I should have quitted a belfry on 
a royal birth-day. 

The pipers were intended as a sort of desert to the Leith 
races, which I attended in the morning, and at which there was 
a great concourse of people, and some elegant equipages. The 
horses ran upon the sands, which are not calculated for such a 
purpose. At the races I saw the Lord Provost of Edinburgh, in 
his equipage of state. This dignified magistrate is styled Right 
Honourable, and is High Sherifi^ Coroner, and Admiral, with- 
in the city and liberties, and the town, the harbojjr, and road of 
Iieith. In the city he takes precedence of all the nobility and 
great officers of state, walking on the right hand of his Majes- 
ty, or his Commissioner ; and has a sword and mace borne before 
him. As soon as the races are concluded, it is the fashion to 
attend the theatre, whjch, merely to keep my word with a. par- 
ty, I visited. The pipers and dancers again exerted themselves, 
the latter wore philibegs, or short petticoats, instead of breeches, 
and, in the course of their springs and caperings, would doubt- 
less have alarmed the sensitive feelings of a member of the So- 
ciety for the Suppression of Vice, had such a one been present, 
for the wounded delicacy of the ladies in the pit •, but custom 
reconciles us to all things, and I have no doubt that the dancing 
was enjoyed from this situation with perfect innocence and com- 
posure. Fearful of being detained during the whole of this na- 
tional performance, I mounted one of the highest-boxes, from 
which, however, I was glad to escape as soon as possible. I af- 
terwards met with several persons of both sexes, who, with the 
highest fondness for their native country, regarded the bagpipes 
with the same disgust as I did. Oh! Catalani, had you been 
there, how would you have exclaimed, with the ill-starr'd Mary, 
*' Ouelle musJque, et quelle repos pour sa nuit !" The piper to 
the Laird of M'Nab and Breadalbanej I was informed, bore off 
the prize — a bagpipe, handsomely mounted in silver, which wac 
presented to him in the presence of the audience. 



Ill 

That the bagpipe is a sorry instrument, capable of little more 
than making an intolerable noise, will appear even from its 
description. The pipes consist of a bass and tenor, or rather 
treble. The bass part is called the dr-orie, on account of its note 
being uniform ; and the tenor, or treble part, the chanter, the 
compass even of which is very limited. The Highland pipe is 
blown with the mouth, and the Lowland with a small bellows. 
The Highland pipe requires a prodigious power of breath to 
sound it, and is loud to a deafening degree when performed in a 
room. It plays only the natural nates, and is incapable of vari- 
ation by flats or sharps. Yet the pipers frequently force it to play 
tunes requiring higher notes, an attempt which produces the 
most horrid discord. The bagpipes are said to be of great an- 
tiquity. In Rome was discovered a most beautiful bas relievo, of 
Grecian sculpture, representing a piper playing upon his instru- 
ment, in the dress of a modern Highlander. 

In former times the bagpipes had considerable influence on 
Highland feelings. At the battle of Quebec, in 1760, whilst 
the British troops were retreating in great disorder, the General 
complained to a Field Officer in Fraser's regiment of the bad be- 
haviour of his corps. *' Sir," said he, with great warmth, 
•' you did very wrong in forbidding the pipers to play this morn- 
ing •, nothing encourages the Highlanders so much in the day 
of action. Nay,* even now they would be of use." " Let them 
blow like the devil then," replies the General, '* if it will bring 
back the men." ^ The pipers were then ordered to play a favour- 
ite martial air ; and the Highlanders, the moment they heard 
the music, returned, and formed with alacrity in the rear. In 
the war in India, in which Sir Eyre Coote so splendidly distin- 
guished himself, that great General observed, that the High- 
land regiments were so attached to their pipes, that he paid 50/. 
out of his own purse, to purchase a pair, after the battle of 
Porto Nuovo. At funerals, ^d other mournful occasions, the 
Highlanders play on the bagpipes a melancholy air, which, 
when heard out of Scotland, aftects a Highlander as the Ranz 
des Vaches does a Swiss. The words of this air are, " Ha pill, 
ha pill, ha pill, mi tuillidh." ** We return, return, return no 
more." It has been played to bodies of Highlanders, when 
marching to the sea, for the purpose of seeking their fortunes 
beyond the Western Ocean. The airs of " Macgregor a 
Ruaro,'' and " Curr a chean dilis," are also said to kave the 
same effects. 



il8 

The pride of the piper is very high. It is related that a 
Highland officer, having, in obedience to orders, added a drum 
to his bagpipe, a spirit of jealousy soon afterwards rose between 
the piper and the drummer, respecting their title to prece- 
dence, which inflamed itself into personal animosity. At 
length the subject of their quarrel was submitted to the officer, 
who decided in favour of the drum, whereupon the piper ex- 
claimed, " Ads wunds, Sir i and shall a little rascal, that beats 
upon a sheep's-skin, tak the right hand of me, that am a mu- 
sician /"' — As a warlike instrument, the bagpipe may be useful in 
the field of battle, for its sounds are calculated to scare and an- 
noy ; but it is a matter of extreme surprise that it should be 
introduced into the apartments of private houses, as capable of 
affording any delight. By a parity of reasoning, a military 
drummer and fifer might as well be admitted to play during our 
family repasts in England. 

Whilst refinement is rapidly spreading over Scotland, and a 
new and more civilized order of things is beginning to be dis- 
played in the most gloomy and desolate parts of the High- 
lands, it is to be lamented that any one should prevent this 
barbarous martial music of the country from yielding to in- 
struments more agreeable to the ear. The bagpipe is amongst 
the very few remaining barbarisms of Scotland. 

How much is it to be regretted that in the Highlands there is 
not now one harper to be found, although the harp was once 
cultivated with great success from a very early age. That it ever 
had been used has till lately been much doubted. In 1460, a 
lady of the family of Lament brought a Caledonian harp from 
Argyleshire to the house of Lude, upon her marriage into the 
family of Robertson, of Lude, where it has ever since remain- 
ed. When the lovely, but unfortunate Queen Mary made a 
hunting excursion into the Highlands of Perthshire, she carried 
a harp with her, which is nov/ also in the family of Lude. And 
there is scarcely a poem which is either sung or recited in the 
Highlands in which the harp is not celebrated. The bards, the 
heroes, their wives, their young; women, are represented as per- 
forming upon this instrument. 

*' And the shell went round, the baids sung, and the soft hand of vir- 
gins trembled on the string of the harp." <.;^-- 
Dr. Smith's Translation of the PoemofTrimna GhuitT^"" 

" His spouse had rema-ned at home. Two children rose with their fair 
locks about her knees—They bend their ears above the harp, as she 



119 

touches, with her white hand, the trembling strings—She stops— 
they take the harp themselves, but cannot find the sound they ad- 
mired—Why, they said, does it not answer us ? Shew us the string 
where dwells the song— She bids them search for it till she returns— 
Their little Hni^ers wander among the wires." 

Poem of Frathal, in Dr. Smith's Ancient Gaelic Poems, 
* 

In the old castles of several Highland chieftains the harper's 
seat is pointed out : as the Harper's Window, at Duntillin-castle 
in the island of Sky, the ancient seat of Lord Macdonald's 
family \ the Harper's Gallery, at Castlelachlan, in Argyleshire, 
and others. One of the last Highland chieftains who retained 
a harper was John Breck, the Laird of Macleod, at his resi- 
dence of Dunvegan-castle, in the island of Sky. John Garve 
Maclean, of Coll, who lived in the latter end of the reign of 
James VI. was considered as a good performer upon the harp. 
It is related of him, that an English vessel having been wrecked 
on the island, the Captain of which went to the Castle of Coll, 
where, upon seeing this venerable gentleman with a Bible in his 
hand, and a harp by his side, he exclaimed, " King David is 
restored to the earth.'' At one period every one played upon 
this instrument, and at festive meetings it was handed round 
from one to the other. O'Kane, a celebrated Irish harper, who 
travelled through Spain with his harp, as Goldsmith wandered 
over various parts of the Continent with his flute, visited Scot- 
land more than once, and was a few years since, for some time 
in the Highlands. He valued himself on suffering his nails to 
grow to a considerable length, trimming them very carefully, 
and shaping them like the quills' on the jacks of a harpsicord. 
When the minstrel grew -very impertinent, from excess of whis- 
ky, to which he was much addicted, the gentlemen of the 
Highlands used to punish him by ordering his nails to be cut 
quite short, and then sending him away. These, and many 
other evidences which could be collected, sufficiently prove that 
the harp was once in high fashion and favour in the Highlands. 
Every person of taste and feeling must regret the decline in 
Scotland of this exquisite and affecting instrument, and be 
shocked at its having been succeeded by the bagpipes. 

Having thus vented my feelings upon the latter, I should in- 
deed do injustice to the Scottish Muse of -Music, were I not to 
offer my homage to her power of song. Most of the Scottish 
airs are eminently plaintive and pathetic ; they appeal to our 
feelings, and never appeal in vain. The illustrious Haydn was 
so enchanted with them, that he bestowed upon them additional 



120 

parts and symphonies. Their Influence extended to the widest 
degree. An anecdote is related, that Mary, *the consort of 
King WilUam, wias a great admirer of a certain Scottish tune, in 
England called Cold and Raw, and in Scotland Up in the Morning 
early. One day, at her private concert, where Purcel presided^ 
the Queen interrupted -the music by desiring one Mrs. Hunt, 
who was present, to sing the ballad of " Cold and Raw •" the 
lady obeyed, and Purcel displayed evident marks of chagrin in 
being obliged to sit idle at his harpiscord, and having his com- 
positions interrupted, for the sake of what he considered so 
trifling. The Oueen's birth-day occurring soon after, Purcel, 
who composed the music for that occasion, either to please or 
surprise the Queen, or to indulge his own humour, made Cold 
and Raw the bass of one of the songs, which was afterwards 
printed in his Orpheus Britannicus, and considered to be very 
beautiful. 



CHAPTER XI. 

Portobeilo — -Ccstorphine hills — the ^Bass — its history interesting — Dud- 
dingstone-houH-^the late commander in chief- — Craigmillar-castle—-' 
Patents exhibition — Scottish painters — anecdotes of Wilkie— subjects of 
the Scottish pencil — Scottish musical taste — dancing-— general post -oj^ce 
—population of Edinburgh — remarks upon the loHJoer and higher classes 
of society— patriotic anecdote—Scottish marriages— —Scotch in former 
times. 

TWO excursions to Portobeilo enabled me to observe 
another instance of the rapid increase of the opulence of Edin- 
burgh. Portobeilo is a beautiful village, embellished with many 
genteel houses, and stands close to the sea shore, which, at low 
water, presents a fine expanded tract of soft, but dry, sand. It 
is much frequented in the season by the fashionable families and 
by respectable citizens of the capital, from which it is but a 
very short distance, as a delightful sea-bathing place ; and, to 
render it as salutary and attractive as possible, a range of warm 



121 

atid cold salt-water baths, upon a very considerable scale, has 
been erected by subscription. Portobello Tower, and the houses 
adjoining, command a fine view of the Forth, the towns that 
skirt the coast of Fife, the shipping going in and out ofLeith, 
and a rich and beautiful country lying in the south and west. 
Although so close to the capital, it has a theatre j to be sure it is 
in a coach-house, but the con:ipany which resort to the place must 
be considerable to induce a strolling company of players to ap- 
proach 30 near the municipal theatre- Portobello is to Edin- 
burgh what the Black Rock is to Dublin. 

The Costorphine Hills, the walk to which is very fine, offer a 
rich treat to the admirer of picturesque beauty. The summit 
of one of the eminences of these hills, about three miles from. 
Edinburgh, is crowned with four seats, each of which is placed 
in the recess formed by two walls crossing each other. From 
these angles there are some of the finest views that the eye can 
feast upon, each varying from the other ; and the city and its 
neighbouring crags and romantic scenery, rising majestically to 
the sight, present an appearance of beauty and splendour com- 
bined. From this summit the celebrated insulated rock, called 
the Bass, was pointed out to me. I could but just discern its 
extraordinary form, as there was a haze at sea. It is about a 
mile from the south shore of the Forth, to the eastward of North 
Berwick. ' This singular rock is inaccessible on all sides except 
by one narrow passage, and is famous for the great flocks of sea- 
fowl which resort to it in the months of May and June, as their 
favourite breeding-place, when the surface of it is almost co- 
vered with their nests, eggs, and young. The most esteemed 
among these birds is the gannet, or Solan goose. As this bird 
is in such high request, and as its young are taken in great 
quantities every year, a high rent is paid for this rock. They 
are generally brought to the Edinburgh markets during the races 
in July, and continue to be sold till the middle of Sep- 
tember, when old and young quit the rock, to spend their 
winter on the ocean, in pursuit of herring or mackerel 
shoals. 

The manner in which they are caught at sea is curious. I was 
informed that, as these birds are in the habits of dropping, as 
if dead, from a considerable height into the sea, in order to 
catch their prey, it is customary to place bait upon a boards 
sunk by weights about a foot under the water, upon which 
the birds M\ with such fprce, as to stun or kill them- 
selves. 

Q 



122 

This Island was anciently in the possession of the family of 
Lauder, who refused to sell it, although several Kings offered 
to be the purchasers ; but, when the family fell into decay, it 
was purchased by King Charles II. during whose reign, and that 
of his brother James, it was made a state prison. A desperate 
body of pirates, in the interest of King James, obtained pos- 
session of it after the revolution ; and, after having for a time 
comm-itted great depredations on the surrounding seas, by means 
of a boat, which they hauled up or lowered at pleasure, they 
were at length starved out, after having conferred upon the 
rock the honour of being the last place, in Great Britain, that 
held out for King James. 

It would infinitely exceed the limits of this work to attempt 
to describe the many exquisite scenes and beautiful houses in 
the vicinity of Edinburgh. However, I shall mention three. 
In going to Craigmillar-castle, which stands about three miles 
south of the capital, I passed by Duddingstone-house, a noble 
villa, of Grecian architecture, standing in a large tract of plea- 
sure-ground, which has been arranged with great taste. This 
seat belongs to the Marquis of Abercorn ; and, although the 
diversified scenery with which it abounds renders it very at- 
tractive, it is much more interesting to the Scotch on account of 
its having been the residence of Earl Moira when Commander in 
Chief in Scotland ; — a station of high importance, which he 
filled with distinguished honour to himself and his country. 
Whilst the public conduct of this illustrious character obtained 
for him the admiration and respect of the Scotch, his domes- 
tic habits engaged their affections. At Duddingstone his Lord- 
ship lived in a style of splendid hospitality, and became highly 
popular by having two pipers in his house, and a great mull or 
Scotch horn, filled with snufF, continually lying upon the table, 
as well as by a judicious adoption of the customs of the people 
in other instances. As his Lordship had a high military cha- 
racter to maintain, at a period of great public alarm and 
anxiety, and much and important business to attend to, the 
guests, influenced by the example of their noble host, never 
exceeded five or six glasses of wine at the public dinners given 
at Duddingstone. 

Craigmillar-castle has nothing interesting in its exterior, or 
in the approach to it. It stands on the summit of a circular 
hill, and commands an extensive prospect ; and is encompassed 
by a thick rampart wall, about thirty feet high, in many parts 
much dilapidated* Tlais wall was erected in 14;27 j but there is 



V2S 

no record of the time when the greater part of the castle was 
built. This venerable pile has several apartments remaining, 
tolerably entire ; but time and the weather have levelled much 
of it with the ground. It is chiefly interesting from its having 
been the favourite abode of Queen Mary, after her return from 
France, in 1561. Her servants were lodged in a neighbouring 
village, still called Petty France ; and in the farmers' gardens 
which adjoin one side of the castle I saw considerable quantities 
of garlic growing, descendants, no doubt, of that pungent 
root, when first planted for the supply of the Queen's table, 
and that of her French servants. 

The last interesting place which I shall mention is the hermi- 
tage of Braid, a charming villa belonging to Mr. Gordon, about 
two miles distant from Edinburgh, south from the Borough 
Moor. At this short distance the visiter is transferred from the 
noise and bustle of a great capital, to an unexpected solitude, 
as retired as the celebrated Sybil's Grotto between Cuma and 
Avernus. The house, and many of the walks, lie in a valley, 
overcanopied with foliage, and watered by a winding rivulet, 
called Braidburn, between ranges of low hills, thickly covered 
with wood. The whole is a little Paradise. 

I was much pleased with Mr. Paton's exhibition of the pro- 
gress of his pupils in writing and arithmetic. A stranger to 
such a spectacle would scarcely conceive it productive of 
any attraction but to the immediate relations and friends of 
thp scholars. It is far otherwise. My surprise and gratifica- 
tion were very great. In a magnificent suite of rooms, built for 
concerts, balls, parades, &c. called Corri's Rooms, a great num- 
ber of well-dressed fine-looking children, of both sexes, were 
seated at a suitable number of desks, attentively occupied in 
writing, a task in which most of them evinced great proficien- 
cy. The exhibition of arithmetic was made by pupils who 
stood in the orchestra, and who, upon large slates, displayed an 
astonishing knowledge of the science. This part of the exhi- 
bition I had not time to attend, but I am informed that Mr. Pa- 
ton has a method, which I believe to be entirely novel, of in- 
structing his pupils to add up their columns of pounds, shil- 
lings, and pence, by simultaneous calculation. The spectators 
were numerous, and very genteel ; and all that I saw was ex- 
tremely interesting. I am confident that these public juvenile 
exhibitions are of the greatest national consequence j they ex- 
cite a high spirit of emulation, one of the greatest springs of 
human energy, and produce that proper degree of confidence 



. ' 124 

which is so necessary in society. In this exhibition a taste was 
displayed that gave an interest to a subject which seemed at first 
but Httle susceptible of it. 

The Arts in Scotland have for ages been retarded by the 
feudal establishments, the civil and religious wars, and poverty 
of the pountry. They are now, though slowly^ raising their 
heads, and offering their pretensions to public approbation and 
encouragement. With an exception of the Scougals, and a few 
artists of less celebrity, there were very few painters of any 
liote till the sera of the Unions — a great national measures 
which, in its I'esults, have been most beneficial to the arts of 
Scotland, although the lustre of a court has been v/ithdrawn. 
At this period Wiliiam Aikman, the friend of the Poet, Allan 
Ramsay, distinguished himself in Edinburgh as a portrait- 
painter ; and coeval with him were Richard Wait and George 
Marshall: the former excelled in still life, and the latter in por- 
trait-painting. To these have succeeded John Alexander, a 
painter of portraits, history, and historical landscapes : Allan. 
Ramsay, the son of the Scottish Poet, who excelled in portrait- 
painting ; the two Runcimans -, Brown ; Jacob More, a land- 
scape-painter ; David Allan, a portrait and historical painter. 
Most, if not all of these artists, spent several years in the culti= 
vation of their art in Italy. 

Many spirited but unsuccessful attempts have at various times 
been made by the Scottish artists to establish an Academy of the 
Arts at Edinburgh. An Academy for Drawing was established, 
several years since, in Edinburgh, the Mastership of which was 
bestowed, in 1771, upon Alexander Riinciman, by the Board of 
Trustees for the Encouragement of Manufactures, &c. upon his 
death, in 1785, David Allan succeeded him. This artist was 
distinguished for his able and faithful delineations of the man- 
ners and character of the Scottish peasantry. On his demise, 
Mr. Graham, an eminent historical painter, was appointed to the 
superintendence of the academy, which he at present occupies. 
As a portrait-painter, Mr. Raeburn, and, as a landscape-painter, 
Mr. Nasmyth, have raised themselves to distinguished and high- 
ly-merited celebrity. Their galleries, which are open for the 
inspection of the public, well deserve the attention of the tour- 
ist. To these gentlemen may be added Mr. Williams, landscape, 
and Mr. Watson, portrait, painters. Besides these gentlemenj 
and others of considerable merit, Scotland has produced artists 
who have most successfully exhibited their talents in England, 
Of these, I have peculiar pleasure in mentioning Mr. David 



125 

Wilkie, a young artist, who, without the advantage of having 
visited Italy, has almost uno saltu arrested the public attention, 
and whose works have acquired its unqualified admiration. As 
this distinguished artist has awakened so much interest, it may- 
gratify my readers to mention something of his history, which 
will show by what trivial accidents the predominant powers of 
the mind are frequently brought into expanded and successful 
exercise. I cannot do this more agreeably than by using the 
modest language of this meritorious artist, which I do with his 
permission. " I was born," says he, " at a small and obseure 
village, of the name of Cults, near Cupar, in the county of 
Fife. My father is a clergyman, and pastor of that village. 
The first inclination I showed for painting, was, I believe, at 
a very early period of my life, when I used to spend my morn- 
ings with an old woman in the neighbourhood, who frequently 
gave me a piece of chalk to amuse myself with, which I used 
to do by drawing the figures of men and women on a board. 
Having from this time shown a strong propensity towards the 
art, my father sent me to an academy at Edinburgh, where af- 
ter studying for five years, under the direction of Mr. Graham 
(a painter of considerable eminence) I came to London." — Mr. 
Wilkie, in his style, is thought to add to the high finish of 
Teniers the humour of Hogarth. The Scottish artists are much, 
occupied in delineating Scotland, which is a favourite study. 
There is scarcely a stream unsung^ and in a short time there 
will scarcely be a hill or a tree unpainted. Mr. Sanders, a very 
eminent miniature-painter in London, was also born in Scotland. 
It is possible that I may have omitted the names of Scottish ar- 
tists, entitled to notice, residing here and in Edinburgh; if I 
have, I am sorry for the omission. Such a brief review will 
give the reader a favourable opinion of the state of the arts in 
Scotland, under the accumulated difficulties which they have 
had to encounter \ and as that country has already produced 
some of the first orators and writers of this or any age, it is 
highly probable, from recent evidences, that she will rival the 
south in her artists. Of her advancement in architecture she 
has much to be proud of. 

Little can be said of the present genius of the Scotch for 
music ; of their former taste we cannot say too much. Perhaps 
within the whole compass of music, their ancient airs and bal- 
lads, in point of genuine and affecting tenderness, are unrival- 
led. However, the people of Edinburgh still have annual con- 
certs during the winter, which are conducted, I was informed. 



126 

with great spirit and attention, by Corri, in the rooms that bear 
his name, and have been before mentioned. 

At Edinburgh, and at other places, I had an opportunity of 
remarking the passion of the Scotch for dancing, and the skill 
which they display in the art. A short time previous to my de- 
parture from the capital, I was present at a ball given in the New 
Assembly-rooms, in George's-street, which are internally very 
splendid, although their exterior has nothing to boast of in ar- 
chitecture. The dance was not in the principal ball-room, which 
however, I saw. This is a noble room,, ninety-two feet long, 
forty-two wide, an,d forty high, is lighted by eleven large crys- 
tal lustres, and has an organ at one end. The ball was under 
the management of a directress, a lady of rank. Gow, the son 
of the famous performer of that name, presided at the orches- 
tra, and showed that the taste and uncommon spirit of the 
father had not perished with him. Many beautiful wonrien 
adorned the festive spene j and they, as well as the men, exhib- 
ited much skill and grace in dancing, particularly in Scottish dan- 
ces, to which they are very partial. The national gravity of 
countenance was however visible, and particularly amongst the 
young men. 

It would be tedious to my readers to comment upon all the 
charitable institutions which do so much honour to Edinburgl^, 
which has, exclusive of those already mentioned, to boast of an 
Orphan, Merchant Maiden, Trades' Maiden, and Lying-in 
Hospitals ; a Dispensary, Repository, Societies for the Relief 
of Ministers' Widows and for the Sons of the Clergy, Watson's 
and Gillespie's Hospitals, and a Magdalen Asylum. The last is 
particularly worthy of notice, and reflects great credit upon the 
active benevolence of Dr. Johnstone, of Leith, to whom also 
the Asylum for the Blind is under great obligations. The ob- 
jects of the Magdalen Asylum were removing to a new, hand- 
some, and very commodious house, erected for them, when I 
was at Edinburgh. 

The General Post-Office was established in 1710. The com- 
munications which this establishment has opened have been 
astonishingly increased within a short period. There are now 
regular posts to not less than two hundred and thirty-five 
towns. The revenue has also increased in an equally sur- 
prising degree. 

In 1763 the net produce was £ 113941 per annum, 
1777 ------ aOjOoo 



127 

1^83 ------ 4Oj00o 

1007 - - - - above iao,ooo 

The expenses of managing the business of this office, which 
is conducted with admirable regularity, are very moderate, con- 
sidering its extent and complication. 

The population of -Edinburgh and its suburbs, including 
Leith, has rapidly increased, as will appear from the following 
enumerations. It amounted in 

* 

167S - - - to - - 35,500 
173a ------ 40,420 

I75S 57.195 

I77S ------ 70)43" 

1791 - _ - .- . . 84,886 

1801 ---..- 82,560 

By this it would appear that, between the two last calcula- 
tions, there is a discrepancy of 2,326; but it is necessary to re- 
mark, that, when the last enumeration was made, the families 
in St. Cuthbert's parish were not enumerated, but calculated 
from the proportion between the families and individuals in the 
city of Edinburgh, a circumstance which occasioned an error of 
between two and three thousand ; and the population of the 
Castle, amounting nearly to nine hundred persons, was not in- 
cluded ; in addition to which, when the census was taken, 
many, to evade the hair-tax, income-tax, and militia-laws, con- 
cealed their numbers and names. As a decisive proof that the 
population must have increased, the city has been enlarged near- 
ly one- fourth since 1791, and every house is occupied : the popu- 
lation may now be fairly estimated at not less than one hundred 
thousand. 

Amongst the many handsome shops which embellish this ca- 
pital, I cannot help mentioning Mr. Cunningham's, jeweller, 
who has a fine collection of Scottish pebbles. Mr. Cunning- 
ham is also known as the friend of the immortal Burns, and has 
in his possession the bowl out of which he used to drink when 
he composed. 

In a capital so literary as Edinburgh, it is natural to expect that 
booksellers' shops abound. There are several of great respec- 
tability ; amongst them that of Archibald Constable and Co. 
takes the lead. From this shop some of the most valued lite- 
rary effusions of the day issue. There are several newspapers 
printed at Edinburgh. It is a curious fact, that Oliver Crom- 



128 

well was the first who introduced a newspaper Into Scotland. 
With his army he carried a printer, of the name of Higgins, 
whom he settled at Leith in 1652, where he published " A 
Diurnal of some Passages and Affairs," for the information 
chiefly of the English soldiers. 

Although my stay in Edinburgh was short, yet, from being- 
much in society, I had a tolerable opportunity of making my 
remarks upon the people. Amongst the tradesmen I observed 
punctuality, sobriety, industry, and much natural civility. In 
their domestic manners they are said to be much improved, and 
to resemble those of their own class in England. In the higher 
walks of society, I observed, united to a more punctilious re- 
gard to family rank than is observed in England, a genuine po- 
liteness, unmingled with the frippery and affectation of character;, 
which are frequently the associates of those in the same social 
scale in the south. Amongst the men this trait is rendered pe- 
culiarly attractive by the uncommon degree of literary attain- 
ment and general information which they possess : the former 
the result of that expanded system of education which abounds 
in Scotland ; and the latter the fruits of that spirit of emigration 
which induces the Scotchman, perhaps more than the native of 
any other country, to transport his talents, and carve his fortune 
and his honours in different regions. A Scottish gentleman is a 
highly-finished character. He is well bred, yet moral ; brave, 
yet courteous ; highly cultivated, but unassuming. Having seen 
many countries, he still prefers his own, to which he returns 
with a mind more expanded, but not less pure, than when he 
left it. At the house of a much esteemed friend I met with a 
very strong instance of the affection so naturally cherished by al- 
most everyone for his native country, and more particularly so by 
the Scotch. I had the honour of being introduced to Colonel 
M'Leod, who having lately returned from India, where, by his 
long and arduous services, he had amassed a considerable for- 
tune, purchased the island of St. Kilda, one of the remotest of 
the Hebrides, and the place where Lady Grange was so success- 
fully secreted when forcibly carried away at the instigation of 
her husband, who dreaded, from her violence of temper, an 
exposure of his share in the proceedings of 1745, as the Rebel- 
lion is delicately called, in which island the Colonel had been 
born, his father having been the clergyman of it. He also pur- 
chased a farm in the isle of Sky, on which stood the remains of 
the school in wkich he had received the early plrt of his edu- 
cation. 



129 

O Caledonia ! stern and wild, 
Meet nurse for a poetic child ! 
Land of brown heath and shaggy wood- 
Land of the mountain and the flood ; 
Land of my sires ! what mortal hand 
Can e'er untie the filial band 
That knits me to thyrnt^ged strand ? 

Lay of the Last Mitutrejy p. 170^ 



,} 



Amongst the ladies there is a frankness of character which 
forms the happy medium between the frequent reserve of an 
English lady and the almost unrestrained freedom of a French 
woman of fashion. With a Scottish lady a stranger is not puz- 
zled to devise new stratagems, every time he meets her, to draw 
her into an intimacy. Her acquaintance seems impregnated 
with friendship, and is guarded by a natural modesty, vhich 
gives a purity to her conversation, and fills the person to whom 
she addresses herself, with equal esteem and respect ior her. 
The Scottish women are in general accomplished, though I do 
not think that they cultivate music either so much or so success- 
fully as my own countrywomen •, but it is to be remembered that 
they have not their advantages in this respect. In England al- 
most every young lady plays and sings with tolerable excellence, 
andmany are perfect mistresses of music, owing to the liberal, 
and perhaps extravagant, encouragement given to the first mas- 
ters in that delightful science. Indeed the Scottish ladies very 
liberally allow the superiority of the English in elegant female 
education, and consider it a great advantage. 

The Scotch excel in learning languages ; and the strong li- 
terary turn, so visible in the character of the Scottish gentle- 
men, is, in a milder manner, comiTiunicated to the fairer sex. 
Their conversation is always more sensible than playful 5 and 
they manage a point of intellectual disputation with equal talent 
and delicacy. I am well informed that the winter parties in 
Edinburgh partake very much of the enlightened and agreeable 
character of the converzationes of France and Italy; and tliat, 
at the head of these delightful circles, the lovely and accom- 
plished Lady Charlotte Campbell presides : that her parties are 
c'istinguished for talent; that they unite taste with splendour, 
learning with politeness, and philosophy with gaiety — an amal- 
gamation which she eflfects by her own talents, beauty, and good 
humour. 

In their domestic conduct the Scottish ladies are exemplary. 
Although marriages and divorces are infinitely more easily ef- 

R 



130 

fected in Scotland than in England, rare are the instances of 
conjugal infidelity, either on the part of the husband or the 
wife. This excellent trait is confirmed by the following enume- 
ration of actions of divorce, raised in the Commissary Court of 
Edinburgh : — 



.1805 


. 


- 


. 


- 


12 


1806 


_ 


- 


^ 


> 


16 


1807 


- 


> 


_ 


- 


21 



I observed more old husbands here, and afterwards in other 
parts of Scotland, thah I had recollected to have seen in any 
other place ; a circumstance which may be thus accounted for i 
the young men generally go into the army or navy early, and 
seldom marry till they have realized fortunes j but the old men 
are tall and vigorous, and have sound stamina ; and perhaps in 
no part of the world are the women more prolific than in Scot- 
land. For a woman to have ten or twelve children is rather a 
common event in a family. At a Scottish table the greatest hos- 
pitality prevails, tempered with perfect good breeding ; no one 
is forced to drink more than is pleasant to him, and every enter- 
tainment is enlivened with 

** The feast of reason and the flow of soul." 

The genteel dinner hour is from five to six. The tables are 
bountifully and elegantly supplied ; but, except in the strawber- 
ry season, the dessert is in general meagre. Immediately after 
dinner, a small glass of Highland whiskey is drank as a liqueur. 
The Scottish ladies dress with great taste in the English fashion 
but in general not so expensively as the Enghsh, and the furni- 
ture of the houses in Edinburgh will suffer by comparison with 
that of the houses in London. It is neither so elegant nor so 
costly. The genteel inhabitants of Edinburgh are fond of 
evening parties, and walking till a late hour in Oueen-street, 
or other beautiful promenades adjoining, particularly by moon- 
light. 

There Is a curious contrast to the foregoing description in 
that which an English traveller has, in a very interesting manner 
recorded, upon his visiting Edinburgh, in 1598. "Myself," 
says he, " was at a Knight's house, who had many servants to 
attend him, that brought in his meat, with their heads covered 
with blue caps j the table being more than half furnished with 



131 

great platters of porridge each having a little piece of sodden 
meat; and, when the table was served, the servants sat down . < 

with us J but the upper mess, instead of porridge, had a pullet, , | 

with some pfunes in the broth ; and I observed no art of cook- 
ery, or furniture of household stuff, but rather rude neglect of 
both j tho' myself and my companions, sent from the Governor 
of Berwick, about Bordering affairs, were entertained after their 
best manner. 

" The Scotch, living then in factions, used to keep many 
followers, and so consumed their revenue of victuals, living in 
some want of money. The vulgarly eat hearth-cakes of oats ; 
but in cities they have also wheaten bread, which, for the most 
part, was bought by courtiers, gentlemen, and the best sort of ci- 
tizens. They drink pure wines not with sugar, as the English ; 
yet at feast they put comfits in their wine, after the French 
manner ; but they had not our vintners' fraud to mix their 
wines. I did never see nor hear that they have any public inns 
with signs hanging out ; but the better sorts of citizens brew 
ale, their usual drink, which will distemper a stranger's body, 
and the same citizens will entertain passengers upon acquaint- 
ance or entreaty. Their beadsteads were then like cupboards in 
the wall, with doors to be opened and shut at pleasure, so as we 
climbed up to our beds. They used but one sheet, open at the 
sides and top, but close at the feet, and so doubled. When 
passengers go to bed, their custom was to present them with a 
sleeping cup of wine at parting. The country-people and mer- 
chants used to drink largely ; the gentlemen somewhat more 
sparingly; yet the very courtiers, by night-meetings, and enter- 
taining any strangers, used to drink healths not without excess, 
and to speak truth, without offence ; the excess of drinking 
was then far greater in general among the Scots than the Eng- 
lish. Myself being at the court, invited by some gentlemen to 
supper, and being forewarned to fear this excess, would not 
promise to sup with them, but upon condition that my inviter 
would be my protection from large drinking, which I was many 
times forced to iavoke, being courteously entertained, and much 
provoked to carousing-, and so for that time avoided any great 
intemperance. Remembering this, and having since observed 
in my conversation at the English court, with the Scots of the 
better sort, that they spend great part of the night in drinking, 
not only wine, but even beer ; as myself cannot accuse them 
of any great intemperance, so I cannot altogether free theni 



132 

from the imputation of" excess, wherewith the popular voice 
chargeth them. 

" The husbandmen in Scotland, the servants, and almost all 
the country, did wear coarse cloth, made at home, of gray or 
sky colourj and fiat blue caps, very broad. The merchants in 
cities were attired in English or French cloth, of pale colour, or 
mingled black and blue. The gentlemen did wear English 
cloth, or silk, or light stuff, little or nothing adorned with silk 
lace, much less wifh lace of silver or gold, and all followed at 
this time rhe French fashion., especially in court. Gentiev,-omen 
married, did wear close upper bodies, after the German manner, 
with large whaiebone sleeves after the French manner, short 
cloaks, like the Germans, French hoods, and large falling bands 
about their necks. The unmarried^ of all sorts, did go hare- 
headedy (the case now amongst the lower Scottish women), and 
wear short cloaks, with most close linen sleeves on their arms, 
like the virgins of Germany. The inferior sort of citizens, 
wives, and the women of the country, did wear cloaks made of 
a coarse stuff, of two or three colours, in chequer work, vul- 
garly called pladden. To conclude, in general they would not, 
at this time, be attired after the English fashion in any sort ; 
but the men, especially at court, follow the French fashion ; 
and the women, both in cciart and city, as well in cloaks as 
naked heads, and also sleeves on the arms, and all other gar- 
ments, follow the fashion of the women in Germany." 

In 1729, another traveller, writing from Edinburgh^ ob- 
serves, " I have been at several concerts of music, an^^ must 
say, that I never saw, in any nation, an assembly of greater 
beauties than those I have seen at Edinburgh. T>6 ladies dress 
as in England, with the difference, that when they go abroad, 
from the highest to the lowest, they wear a plaid, which covers 
lialf of the face and all the body." 



CHAPTER XIL 

■icotiish pronunciaucn—Williarii Dunhar — -Scottish language— humourous 
pro'vincialities—^Scotticismi — 7/iendicity — Scottish poor—^-pom'-la^ws'— 
remarks — -Scottish poor, honxj pro-vicied for— anecdote of an English 
o-verseer of the poor-'-'diffcrence bei'voetn Scottish and English poor>"^ 
author leagues Edinbtirgh-~~oueeii's ferry — 'BroOfii- hall— Lord Elgin—^ 
-oast lime-^uArriss—Dunferv.Hne abbey. 

I HAD not been long in Edinburgh before I found, in 
.^jeveral parties of both sexes, how much the English pronuncia- 
tion is admired. The mode of utterance amongst the higher 
classes, particularly amongst the females, is far from being un- 
pleasant. In the latter I think it very soft and interesting ; 
however, it is a dialect which the well-bred and the learned are 
desirous of expelling from their tongues and writings. But, 
although we have a decided advantage over the Scotch in pro- 
nouncing the language, they rival us most completely in the 
purity of their written English. I have heard Scotchmen assert 
that the English language was known in Scotland in more puri- 
ty in an earlier period than in England. I should doubt the 
truth of this assertion, and without meaning the slightest dis- 
respect to the Scotch, I conceive that a natural course of events 
would have rendered, the language in England rich, copious, 
elegant, and analogical, at an earlier period than in Scotland, 
even had the capital continued to have been irradiated by all the 
refinement and luxury attendant upon the presence of ma- 
jesty. _ 

It also appears from history that the power of writmg the 
English language was, for a long period back, considered as an 
estimable attainment \ and it was for this that William Dunbar^ 
one of the best poets in the court of James V. was valued. Mr- 
Ritspn, in his Historial Essay on Scottish Song, informs us, that 
in the thirteenth century, the language of England and Scotland 
differed only in dialect \ the Gaelic, like the Welch, being con- 
fined to the mountains of either country. The fathers of 
English and Scottish song were contemporary. Upon the death 
of James V. in 1542, the poetical language of Scotland was 
very fine and beautiful. Upon the accession of James VI. to 
she English throne, the Scottish language began to droop for 
*vant of royal encouragement. That princely pedant, though he 



134 

could never attain the English, disliked the Scottish, pronun- 
ciation •, and would suffer his Caledonian subjects to address him 
only in English or Latin. 

The Scotch, in constant terror of their Scotticisms, have 
studied English as they would a dead language ; and those, who 
have not been much in England before the organs of speech are 
formed,' are not able to speak it as an Englishman. The cele- 
brated Hume has the reputation of having been the first, who 
introduced into his country that dignified and classical style of 
composition, which has been continued with so much felicity by 
Robertson, and other illustrious Scottish writers since the death 
of Hume, and brought to so great a degree of grace and purity 
that the Scottish authors cannot now injure their style by imita- 
ting one another, and that English authors may, in many in>- 
stances, consult it as a model. To return r to the Scottish pro- 
nunciation, I must confess that, to my ears, it is far from being 
agreeable amongst the lower classes of society ; and every Eng- 
lishman I have met with who has seen Scotland, and, I believe 
I may add, every refined, travelled Scottish gentleman, feels as 
I do upon the subject. A nice ear is very sensible of the dif- 
ference which marks the dialects of almost every county in 
Scotland. The natives of Ross-shire, Inverness-shire, Banff- 
shire, Aberdeenshire, &c. all speak differently from each other : 
to some this difference of dialect would amount to a foreign lan- 
guage. The following humourous circumstance will illustrate 
this difference of provincial idiom. An English gentleman, some 
years since, travelling into the north of Scotland, was told, 
when he came to Edinburgh, that he would not be able to un- 
derstand the Aberdeenshire dialect, and was advised to take an 
Edinburgh servant as an interpreter, which he did ; and upon 
his ari4val at Lady F — 's, an old Scottish Countess, who had as- 
sociated with very few EngHsh, he was desired by the venerable 
and hospitable lady, when seated, at dinner, to^' tee^ and eat. 
Upon applying to his interpreter for an explanation, the servant 
said, " Hoot, mon ! her Ladyship meansyit' /«, and eat.'' "And 
pray what the devil," replied his master, — " is fa' tu ?" — " It 
means fall to." 

A native of the same country, in the course of conversation 
with an Englishman, made some inquiries of him relating to the 
death of a friend in the East Indies, and said, " Fat deed he o P" 
which the Englishman not understanding, another Scotchman, 
by way of helping him, exclaimed, « Fat o deed he ?" The 
letter jT is always used in Aberdeenshire for w. It is very com- 



136 

mon, when one suddenly asks a Scottish peasant a question, for 
him to exclaim, " What's your wull ? 

The foUov/ing peculiar expressions and Scotticisms, (which I 
partly heard and partly collected in my Caledonian rambles,) in 
use amongst the common people, will, I think, be amusing to 
the reader, and at the same time exhibit a poetical strength of 
expression which I had many opportunities of admiring in Ire- 
land. " If you will gang after that man with the tree leg," said 
a labourer in Edinburgh to me, upon my asking my way to a 
street, « he will tak ye to it." The man he pointed out had a 
ivoodeti leg. A servant at an inn said, " Oh ! Sir, it has been 
a terrible wet and j^^ry night •" meaning that there had been 
much rain, accompanied with thunder and lightning. They 
also say, " It rains so hard to-day, that I fear / shall not get 
walked" — " O. Did you see him ? Oh ! yes ; I saw him ^«^." — 
*' Oh ! my uncle is a dungeon of learning !" exclaimed a girl, 
when speaking of the pedantry of her relation. In the north 
they emphatically say, " He was a good man, for he could see 
from his door a hundred smokes rise on his ground." And 
again, " He cannot thrive, yir he put out fifty smoker" meaning 
that he removed so many tenants. A Lowlander had an occasion 
to visit Loch Buy, at Moy. " Well ! what think you of this 
spot ?" said a gentleman. " Ah ! Sir, it is a gate (very) botinie 
placet© be out of the world." I often met with the word mortfica- 
iion used to express a deed of gift to a charitable fund j for instance 
" So many missionaries and catechists, in such a place, are sup- 
ported by Lord or Lady Such-a-one's mortification." The foun- 
der of the charity is also called Mortifier. At Aberdeen the 
manager of certain pubUc funds, who is chosen annually, is called 
the Master of the Mortifications. " We have lately got a morti- 
fication here," said a northern burgess to a gentleman from Eng- 
land, — " I am very sorry for it," replied the Englishman. — The 
other stared, and added, " Yes, a very considerable mortifica- 
tion ; an old miser died the other day, and left us ten thousand 
pounds to build an hospital." — «^ And call you that a mortifica- 
tion .''" said the stranger. — " Yes," replied the Scotchman, « and 
we think it a very great one." 

Send a Council-post means send a special messenger. Edin- 
burgh is called Edinhru. To say such-a-one is an honest 'man is 
an expression of kindness, and regard. Wronguss and iniquious 
are in frequent use amongst lawyers. The Scots often use wife 
and woman as correlatives, and say an old imfe when they mean 
an old nvoman. Sometimes wife, in compound words, denotes 



136 

a woman of mean employment ; as, a strawberry ivife^ a womaa 
who sells strawberries. To think shame is to be ashamed. Vic- 
tual^ in Scotch, is used for corn^ and vivres are victuals. / weary 
when I walk alone ; z. e- I become weary. The inn is very 
throng : i. e. very full. Fresh weather means soft, open, opposite 
to frosty. He fevered ; that is, he took a fever, ^n ashet, from. 
the French, assiette, is a plate. What airt is the wind in ? how 
is the wind ?-In Aberdeenshire, and in other counties it is usual, 
when a common person means to call the attention of another to 
what he is going to remark, to say " Speak to me," which is ap- 
parently the reverse of what he means. Many of the vulgar 
words, as must have appeared in the foregoing Scotticisms, are 
of Saxon, German, Dutch, and French etymology. The Scotch 
use several diminutives to express a little animal or thing ; for 
instance, they would call a very young kitten " a litt/e, wee, 
catty." 

The greater part of the Highlanders, like the Irish, under- 
stand English and many of them speak that and Gaelic, with 
equal fluency. This possession of two languages gives to the 
peasantry of both countries that acuteness of thinking which 
cannot fail to strike a stranger, and seems to be the result of a 
mind considerably cultivated. They both frequently speak in 
very periphrastic language. One Highlander said to another, 
«' Though I gave your father's son a cow, it does not follow 
that I can give your father's son my daughter." 

I met with few instances of mendicity in the streets. The 
beggars here, as in Holland, are very few, and far froni being 
importunate. Amongst the many regulations of political eco- 
nomy which excite the admiration of the stranger, the system 
by which the poor in Scotland are maintained cannot fail to 
awaken interest. The poor-laws in England have for a long 
period afforded regret to every intelligent and reflecting mind. 
Its evils are many, its advantages to the state very few. The 
wretchedness of the, poor in England, strange as it may appear, 
has increased with the increase of the poor-rates, which, in 
1773, were estimated at not less than three millions. In 1788, 
Mr. Beufoy, in the debate on Mr. Gilbert's Poor-Bill, said, 
" that, within the then last nine years, the poor-rates had 
increased one third ; and, should they continue increasing for 
fifty or fifty-three years, they would amount to the enormous 
sum of 11,230,000/. a burthen which the country could not 
bear." 



137 

Lord Kaimes, in his Sketches of Man, book ii. sketch 10, 
well observes, " Fear of ivant is the only effectual motive to in- 
dustry with the labouring poor; remove that fear, and they 
cease to be industrious. The ruling passion of those who live 
by bodily labour is to save a pittance for their children, and for 
supporting themselves in old age. Stimulated by a desire of ac- 
complishing those ends, they are frugal and industrious, and the 
prospect of success is a continual feast to them. Now, what 
worse can malice invent against such a man, under colour of 
friendship, than to secure bread to him and his children, when- 
ever he takes a dislike to work, which effectually deadens his 
sole ambition, and, with it, his honest industry .•* Relying on 
the certainty of provision against want, he relaxes gradually till 
he sinks into idleness; idleness leads to profligacy ; profligacy 
begets diseases ; and the wretch becomes an object of public 
charity, before he has run half his course. Wisely therefore is 
it ordered by Providence, that charity should in every instance 
be voluntary.^ to prevent the idle and profligate from depending 
on it for support. During the reign of Elizabeth, when the 
-monasteries were recently suppressed, and all their revenues 
squandered, some compulsion might be necessary, to prevent 
the poor from starving. A temporary provision for this purpose, 
so contrived as not to supercede voluntary charity, but rather to 
promote it, would have been a measure extremely proper. Un- 
lucky it is for England that such a measure was overlooked ; but 
the Queen and her Parliaments had not the talent of foreseeing 
consequences without the aid of experience. A perpetual tax 
for the poor was imposed ; the most pernicious tax that ever was 
imposed in any country." — In Scotland, however, several acts 
were passed, at various times, for establishing a general tax on 
property, for the support of poverty ; and the last statute enact- 
ed, viz, of William and Mary, in 1691, which ratifies and 
confirms all former acts of parliament and proclamations of 
council for repressing of beggars and maintaining and employing 
the poor, and which statute remains unrepealed to this hour, 
promised to be as pregnant with mischief in Scotland as the 43d 
of Elizabeth in England ; but although such acts still continue in 
the Statute-Books, it appears that, on account of the fortunate 
discrepances of their respective provisions, they have been ad- 
judged, by a solemn decision of the Court of Session, in an ac- 
tion there brought against a gentleman, for not complying with 
an assessment to the poor, by the overseers of the parish in 
which he residedj to be of no force. 

S 



138 

In Scotland, the poor who are partly, or entirely, incapable of 
maintaining themselves without assistance, are accurately dis- 
tinguished, and comfortably maintained, with a degree of dis- 
crimination and humanity which do equal honour to the head 
and the heart of those who contribute to a relief thus substan- 
tially effected without any compulsory pauper-rate. The 
Scotch system is very simple, and presents a strong contrast to 
the mode adopted in England. On every Sabbath, at the door 
of the parish church, a bason, under the immediate care of an 
Elder, is placed on a stool, or held in his hand, in which those 
who have the power of manifesting their beneficence deposit 
what they can afford. After the congregation is dismissed, the 
kirk session, corresponding with our vestry, composed of the 
minister, elders, session- clerk, and kirk-treasurer, assembles, 
before whom the money so collected, is counted over, entered 
in the session-account book by the session-clerk, (who is gene- 
rally the schoolmaster of the parish, and is the only person wh» 
receives any, and that a very trifling remuneration for his trouble, 
in keeping the accounts), and afterwards deposited in a box kept 
for the purpose. 

The mode of distributing these charitable donations is also 
admirable. Immediately after divine service, a fortnight's no- 
tice is given from the pulpit, that a distribution will be made, at 
the hour and place appointed, to those who stand in need of re- 
lief. At this meeting, a rigid investigation of the circumstances 
of those who apply for eleemosynary aid precedes any application 
of it ; and the wise precautionary rules, by which those who 
are concerned in the custody and distribution of the money are 
governed, enforce a due discharge of duty, and prevent almost 
the possibility of error, fraud, or spoliation. At these meetings 
the money of the poor is not, as in England, scandalously re- 
sorted to, to discharge the cost of an extravagant dinner for the 
overseers of the poor; but the whole is regulated most for the 
advantage and comfort of the unfortunate "beings, who, by 
friendless age or sickness, or uncontrollable misfortune, are ren- 
dered the deserving objects of benevolence. 

I knew a Worthy man in England, who having, by successful . 
trade, accumulated a comfortable independence, retired to en- 
joy it in the country. In due course he was appointed one of 
the overseers of his parish ; a short time previous to the day on 
which he, his colleague, and the church-wardens, were- to meet 
for the purpose of adjusting the parochial accounts, he sent to 
them to invite them to dine at his own house on that day, instead 



12,9 

of applying any of the poor's money to defray the expenses of 
a dinner at an inhi in the town, a practice which had always 
been before observed. The invitation was refused, on account 
of the pernicious effects of «uch an example to all future parish- 
officers J and this faithful guardian of the poor was considered 
in no other light than as a worthy visionary. 

But the poor of Scotland do not rely for relief upon the Sun- 
day collections alone. Some small fees paid at funerals, for the 
use of a mort-cloth, or pall, which is purchased out of the poor's 
money, the extra offerpgs at the administration of the Lord's 
Supper, and the interest of donations in money, or the rent of 
donations of land, left by pious persons for the support of the 
poor, and applied with the same religious adherence to a strict 
discharge of diity, severally augment the stream of benevolence, 
and if the funds are not adequate, a never-failing source is form- 
ed to supply the deficiency by the landholders, who, upon be- 
ing convened for that purpose by the minister, assess them- 
selves, in proportion to their valued rents, to meet the emer- 
gency, which does not often happen ; to these resources may be 
added the well-known filial piety of the Scotch, who never suf- 
fer the venerable beings who have imparted life to them to seek 
relief from charity, till every exertion to save them from it has 
proved unavailing. 

I could not learn that a single instance had occurred where 
proper assistance in the hour of need had been refused. What 
an affecting, what a consoling system is this ! how simple in its 
elements, how noble and effusive in its operations ! By such 
wisdom aud humanity Scotland is almost wholly free from men- 
dicity. An Englishman accustomed to hear the clamours of the 
poor in his own country, and to find their numbers daily in- 
creasing, is lost in admiration as he contemplates this union of 
wisdom and humanity, an union which is powerfully aided by 
the peculiar spirit of the people. In England the low manufac- 
turer, the petty shop-keeper, and the peasant, are in the fre- 
quent habits of seeing members of their own class in life be- 
come paupers through idleness, and apply for parochial relief as 
they would for the price of an article in trade, or the wages of 
labour, without the pang of shame : they see and feel no degra- 
dation, and hence the increasing number of paupers, and the 
alarming increase of the poor-rates. The northern artisan, 
tradesman, or peasant, on the contrary, feels a conscious pride 
in living by the fruits of his own industry ; he knows that for 
indolence and profligacy there is no relief j and, even under the 



140 

pressure of long disease and unavoidable misfortune, ihemora:: 
pridey if I may use the expression, of his family or neighbours, 
will call forth every energy to keep hini from the degradation of 
parochial relief. The effect of this system upon the manners 
and character of the people is very striking. The Scotch ge- 
:iera11y make keen bargains, but very seldom dishonest ones. 
They are actuated by a spirit of shrewdness, frugality, in- 
dustry, and decent pride, which is visible in all their tran- 
sactions, and which entitles them to the respect of every ob- 
server. 

After seeing every thing wor]thy of observation, and expe- 
riencing the highest civility and attentioh, I bade adieu to Edin- 
burgh, and set off for Queen's Ferry, distant about nine miles. 
It is so called, because Margaret, Malcolm's third ^ueen, used 
frequently to pass that way in her road to and from Dunfermline 
where she resided. The road to this place passes through a 
highly-cultivated county and rich improved estates, and is em- 
bellished on either side with neat cottages, each having a garden 
of vegetables, and the whole being such as might be expected 
in the neighbourhood of a great capital. The view from the 
inn is as beautiful as any in nature, and exhibits a nearer 
view of the objects which are seen from the Costorphine 
Hills. ^ ; • 

This ferry is more frequented than any other over the Forth, 
and is the great communication between the Mid-Highlands and 
the south-eastern parts of Scotland. Many carriages pass this 
way ; and, by the great care and dexterity of the ferrymen, are 
as well as the passengers, soon wafted over to the other side of 
the Forth with great safety. The stage-coaches and mail be- 
tvireen Aberdeen, Perth, and Edinburgh, run this way. In the 
time of James III. owing to the little progress made in the 
science of navigation, and the violent gusts of wind to which 
the Forth is exposed, this ferry, indeed the \yhole of the Forth, 
was extremely perilous ; and the careful monarch passed a law, 
declaring, " That there be na schip frauched out of the realm, 
with any staple gudes, fra the feast of Simon's Day and Jude, 
■unto the feast of the Purification of our Lady, called Candle- 
mas." 

I much regretted that my time and route would not permit 
me to visit Broom-hall, the magnificent seat of Lord Elgin, 
which stands on the north side of Queen's Ferry, directly oppo- 
site to Hopetoun-house. I M^as informed that some part of the 
shell of this mansion was built in the late Lord's time, as well as 



141 

some detached parts of the offices, which are now united, and 
embellished in one grand design, with porticoes, presenting a 
front of four hundred and seventy feet, on the exact model of 
the rem.aining examples of Grecian architecture brought by his 
Lordship from Greece, under the able and tasteful direction of 
Mr. Porden, the gentleman from whose designs that beautiful 
structure, the stables of his Royal Highness the Prince of Wales, 
at Brighton, was erected. 

Broom-hall is entitled to the rank of a highly classical build- 
ing. The grand portico is exactly formed from the Temple of 
Minerva, at Athens -, the two lateral porticoes are true copies of 
the Propylaea ; the two others, entrances to the offices, resem- 
ble the Agora ; and the grand hall is the exact model of the in- 
terior of the Ionic Temple. Lord Elgin was our Ambassador 
at Constantinople for some years, and is well known to be a no- 
bleman of distinguished taste. Whilst he was in Greece he 
was attended by skilful artists, who, under his superintendancc, 
collected several statues and precious fragments from the diffe- 
rent temples of Athens, which his Lordship has, at great ex- 
pense, transported to England, and which, with a noble liberali- 
ty, he has opened to the public inspection. 

I had also another cause of regret, in not seeing his Lord- 
ship's lime quarries, which, as they have been described to me, 
are immense excavations, resembling vast piazzas. From these 
quarries one thousand five hundred lime- vessels were freighted, 
in 1 806, for agricultural use, in different parts of Scotland where 
lime is not found. 

Travellers used also to be attracted in this direction by the 
beautiful remains of Dunfermline-abbey, in the neighbourhood 
of Broom-hall. The former, history informs us, was begun by 
King Malcolm III. and is celebrated, next to Jona, for being the 
cemetery of several Scottish Kings ; amongst others, of the il- 
lustrious Robert Bruce ; but no inscription remains to distin- 
guish them from the vulgar dead. The abbey was in the An- 
glo-Saxon style of architecture. A great part of its venerable 
ruins was destroyed by the falling of the steeple, in the latter 
end of last August. 



142 



CHAPTER XIII. 

HopetDun-J.'Ousc — process of tramping— -LinUthgo--w-— the palace-— ancient 
Scottish court— -assassination of the regent Murray— F alkirk— great 
canal — the Carron njoorks—the ri'ver Carrcn — TVallace's oak — stir- 
ling — earl of Marr — Stirling -castle — historical incidents— y antes V. 
and the Italian friar— Scottish toilette— extraordinary tides of the 
Forth. 

AFTER much difficulty, on account of the number of 
persons travelling to Edinburgh just at this period, I procured a 
couple of sorry horses, and proceeded for Linlithgow. The 
town of Queen's Ferry has nothing in it worthy of notice but 
occasional picturesque interest, and a large manufactory of soap 
%vhich pays a higher duty to the excise, than that of any other 
town in Scotland. The ride along the coast is exquisite beyond 
description. At various turnings the Forth, with its beautiful 
landscape and shipping, presents all the varieties of a vast lake, 
a mighty river,, and a sea, embellished with lofty hills and pro- 
montories, highly-cultivated grounds, shores and winding bays, 
and skirted with villages. 

After enjoying this enchanting prospect, I turned from it to 
ascend an eminence, upon which stands the stately mansion of 
Hopetoun-house, the approach to which is very fine. This 
building was commenced by Sir William Bruce, and finished by 
Mr. Adams. The interior does not correspond with the splen- 
dour of its external appearance, although there are some hand- 
some apartments. I observed in the dining-room of this house, 
as I have in the rooms of other houses in Scotland, that the 
wainscot was plain deal, arid not painted. Upon my remarking 
this circumstance to the man who attended me, he observed, 
" My Lord is very fond of the deal colour.^'' \ scarcely know a 
greater eye-sore. There are some good statues and several pic- 
tures, few of which are valuable. My Ciceroni was not very 
brilliant in his explanation ; every picture, according to his ac- 
count, was by Pasarillo or Parchini, names much more familiar 
to him than they were to me. The grounds and woods adjoin- 
ing this house are extensive, and finely laid out ; and the views 
from them abound with subjects for the pencil.. 



143 

In my way from Hopetoun-house to Linlithgow I saw the 
process of tramping^ that is, of washing. The washerwoman 
first soaps the linen, and next puts it into a tub of cold water ; 
she then kilts her coatSy that is, raises her petticoats above her 
knees, and dances round the tub with her face outwards, until 
she presses out the dirt with her feet ; she then rinces the linen 
in the river or stream, and dries it on the grass. If the tub is 
large, and the work much, two wom^nwilk dance round, hand- 
in-hand, laughing and singing all the time. The charms which 
are thus sometimes very liberally displayed are such that will not 
'-admit of being gazed upon with stoic composure. I could not 
help comparing this method with that practised by the washer- 
women of France, and in other parts of the Continent, 
who beat out the dirt from the linen with battle-dores ; and 
giving the preference to the Caledonian tramping for one 
reason more than that the method purifies the linen without 
injury. 

I passed through a highly-cultivated and picturesque country ; 
but before I arrived at the town I had an ample opportunity of 
ascertaining the force and copiousness of a Scottish storm of 
rain, which, however, upon its dispersion, increased the beau- 
ty of the surrounding objects. I was not sorry to change my 
dress, before a good roaring fire, at a little but neat Inn, at the 
entrance of the town, which afforded me as much comfort as I 
could reasonably desire for two days. The town, which is a 
royal borough, is very ancient, and was formerly a place of great 
trade, opulence, and splendour ; though it now presents but 
little appearance of its former consequence. It consists of a street 
running from east to west, about three miles long, with several 
lanes and gardens on the sides of it. The manufacture of shoes 
and tanning of leather form the chief occupations of the inhabi- 
tants. The only object in it worth seeing, are the remains of 
the palace, which have a very grand and solemn appearance ; 
they occupy a rising ground, at the foot of which is an exten- 
sive lake, and very nearly an acre of ground. The date of the 
present palace is not known. It became a fixed royal residence 
upon the accession of the l^tuart family to the throne, by their 
marrying into the family of Bruce ; and it presents a variety of 
architectural styles, on account of its having been repaired and 
altered under different monarchs. The square within the 
palace is very handsome, and the apartments and galleries very 
numerous ; the parliament-chamber, now exposed to the clouds 
and its floor covered with weeds and nettles, t's a very !arw 



144 

room. The chimney, or venty as my guide called it, still re- 
mains, and is Suitable to the magnitude of this room, in which 
it is said the unfortunate Queen Mary was born, on the 8th of 
December, 1 542. In an aisle in this awful pile King James IV. 
saw the apparition, as it was then believed to be, which fore- 
told the fate of the battle of Flodden, and which was supposed 
to have been a stratagem of his Queen to prevent his expedition 
into England. > 

Upon the beams of one of the rooms is still visible the smoke 
occasioned by the troops under General Hawley, who were 
lodged here, when they set fire to the palace, after the battle of 
Falkirk, whether by accident or design is not ascertained. 
Never did I enjoy a scene of a melancholy tendency more than 
upon the roof of this gloomy august pile. As I contem- 
plated it, my mind accompanied my eye with the lines of 
Ossian : — 

" They have but fallen before us— -for one day we must fall. Why 
dost thou build the hall, son of the winged day ? Thou lookest 
from thy towers to-day ; yet, a few days, and the blast of the 
desart comes ; it howls in thy empty court, and whistles round 
thy half-worn shield." 

Its many roofless apartments, its massy sombre walls, corroded 
by time and the elements, its shattered windows, the moan of 
the wind through its long mouldering galleries, the clouds rol- 
ling in gloom, and occasionally admitting a gleam of misty light 
partially to stream upon its sides ; the sluggish lake below, just 
curled by the cold breezes «f the evening, the town and the 
surrounding hills, but indistinctly seen, produced an effect 
equally sublime and mournful. This building was kept in repair 
and inhabited till the year 1746, when the catastrophe before 
mentioned took place. In former times the court was kept here 
with uncommon splendour :— 

For from the lofty balcony 

Rung trumpet, shalm, and psaltery : 

Their clanging bowls old warriors quafF'd, 

Loudly they spoke, and loudly laugh'd. 

Whisper'd young Knights, in tone more mild, 

To Ladies fair ; and Ladies smil'd. 

The hooded hawks, high perch'd on beam, 

The clamour joined, with whistling scream : 

And flapp'd their wings, and shook their bells, 

In concert with the stag-hounds' yells." 

Lay of the Last Minstrel. Branksome Castle , 175. 



145 

Such was the magnitude arid grandeur of the building, that 
they drew from the Oueen of James V. although bred up in all 
the pomp and luxury of a French court, a very high eulogium. 
She said, after observing that the court and inhabitants of Scot- 
land were the most polite and civilized she had ever seen, that 
the Palace of Linlithgow was the most magnificent. The 
church adjoining is a fine Gothic building, surmounted with an 
imperial crown : in front of this building divine service is still 
performed. It was once adorned by several statues, which were 
destroyed by the reformers. 

A new fountain, in imitation of the ancient one, which had 
been erected one hundred and eighty years, upon a space op- 
posite the Town house, was constructing whilst I was at this 
place. The ridiculous figures which formed the spouts for this 
water were well copied. There is no variation in this copy from 
the original, except in the base. It is a good imitation of a 
rude, but elaborate, and, allowing for the taste of the times, a 
splendid piece of masonry. These sort of public wells, or fount- 
ains, are common in the towns of Scotland. A stranger is also 
shown the house from which Hamilton, of Bothwellhaugh, 
shot the Earl of Murray, Regent of Scotland, with almost un- 
paralleled deliberation and arrangement. The following is an 
interesting account of that extraordinary event : — " After the 
unhappy Mary Oueen of Scots, in consequence of her marriage 
with Bothwell, the murderer of her husband, Darnley, had so 
far excited the indignation of the whole kingdom, previously 
prejudiced against her on account of her religion, that she had 
been driveti from her throne, and her infant son James VI. pro- 
claimed King in her stead, the Earl of Murray, a natural son of 
her father, and a zealous supporter of the Protestant cause, was 
made Regent of the kingdom. The deposed Queen, having 
escaped from Lochleven-castle, was supported by the Hamiltons 
and others ; but their forces being defeated at the battle of 
I^angside, she fled into England ; and the Regent, amongst 
other instances of vengeance, authorized one of his dependents 
to seize the old house of Woodhouselee, which belonged to 
James Hamihon, of Bothwellhaugh. Hamilton's lady was re- 
siding there at the time, and she was barbarously thrust out of 
the house, almost naked, at midnight in winter, to perish in 
the snow. The unhappy woman, by the morning, was found, 
not indeed to have expired, but to have lost her reason. Her 
husband, enraged by the atrocity of this injury, undertook to 
avenge, upon the person of the Regent, at once the misfor- 

T 



146 

tunes of his party, and his own private wrongs. After some 
deliberation, he selected the town of Linlithgow as a fit spot 
for his purpose. Having obtained possession of a house in a 
narrow part of the street, he prepared it secretly for his pur- 
pose. He chose an upper room with a wooden balcony in front, 
which should prevent his being readily seen from the street ; and 
lest his shadow should be observed, he hung the apartment with 
black. That he might make no noise, he placed a feather bed 
upon the floor. The door towards the street was shut, and the 
whole was considered as an empty house. In the mean while 
the Regent was at Stirling, and it was known that he was 
speedily about to go to Edinburgh, in which case he must pass 
through Linlithgow. He accordingly arrived there on horse- 
backj well attended, and the populace crowded around to see 
the cavalcade. When the Regent arrived at the narrow part of 
the street, Hamilton, unperceived, took his aim. The ball pas- 
sed through the body of the Earl of Murray, and killed the 
horse immediately beyond him. The Regent fell, and soon af- 
terwards expired. In the mean while all eyes were turned to 
the window from which the shot came, and an attempt was 
made to enter the house ; but the door being strongly barricaded 
occasioned considerable delay. When it was at last broke open, 
the marks were found of deliberate preparation, and it was dis- 
covered that the assassin had escaped by the back part of the 
house, a part of the garden-wall having been broken down to 
permit the admission of a fleet horse, upon which he escaped, 
and which some of his kindred, to whom the enterprise was 
known, had kept in readiness for him. The event was of great 
political importance, and made much noise in Europe. Hamil- 
ton fled to France, where the court was hostile to the Protes- 
tant party, of which Murray had been the head in Scotland. 
The courtiers there imagined that Hamilton would be a fit per- 
son to be employed in the assassination of the celebrated Admi- 
ral Coligny, the chief of the French Protestant party. They 
thought they could not apply to a more proper person than a 
man who had just committed an act of the same kind in his own 
country* A man of rank accordingly suggested the project. 
Hamilton, shocked at the proposal, cried out, " What villain ! 
do you suppose me an assassin ?" and challenged him on the 
spot." 

At Linlithgow, as the weather was rainy, I procured a toler- 
ably good post-chaise and pair for Falkirk. Posting in this part 
of Scotland is Is. 6d. a mile. The country through which I 



14^ 

passed is well cultivated and finely wooded, aud has much beau- 
ty to boast of. Falkirk is a village delightfully situated upon an 
eminence, the prospect from which, in several directions, is very 
picturesque, which suffers occasionally by the smoke of the ad- 
joining Carron Works. This town has a very commodious and 
handsome inn, and is principally known for its great cattle- 
fairs, to which thirty thousand and fifty thousand head of cat- 
tle have been frequently brought ; of course the value of pas- 
ture grass in the vicinity is very high. Here I first observed 
that the town-crier in Scotland awakens the attention of the 
people to his notice by a previous roll of the drum, l^ear this 
town is the field of battle in which 'W'illi^m Wallace and the 
English fought in the beginning of the fourteenth centijry. It 
still goes by the name of Graham's Muir, from the valiant John 
Graham, who fel] there, and who wa? buried in the church- 
yard of Falkirk. 

Haying been presented with a letter of introduction to Mr. 
Gibson, the agent of the Carron Company, I set off with my 
credentials to these celebrated iron-works, about two ijiiles and 
a half from Falkirk. In my way I crossed the Great Canal, 
which, passing through thp heart of the pojjntry, unites the 
Forth with the Clyde. This noble undertaking, after much dis- 
pute between the merchants of Glasgow and the nobility and 
gentry of the country, with respect to what its size should be, 
was at length completed, and a navigation opened from sea to 
sea, on the 28th July, 179Q. The following are the dimensions 
of the canal : — 

Miles. 
Length of the Navigation from the Forth to the Clyde 35 

Length of the collateral Cut to Glasgow - - 2^ 

From Port Duiidas to the Bason of the Monkland Canal i 



It passes over ten considerable aqueduct bridges, and upwards 
of thirty smaller ones, or tunnels, and is crossed by thirty-three 
drawbridges. Vessels of nineteen feet beam, sixty-eight feet 
keel, and drawing eight feet water, can pass through it from 
one end to the other. The proprietors of the Carron Foun- 
dery are a chartered company, with a capital of 150,000/. ster- 
ling, which is divided into six hundred shares. These works, 
which are said to be the greatest of the kind in Europe, are 
conveniently situated on the classical banks of the Carron, thrpe 



148 

miles above its entry into the Forth, and were established nj 
1760. The buildings in which they are carried on cover a great 
extent of ground •, and the flame, smoke, and heat of the fur- 
naces, and sable hue of the artificers, gave me a lively idea of the 
description we have of the lower regions. Cannon, shot, shells, 
and anchors, to augment the desolations of war, and grates, 
pots, and pans, to promote the comforts of the kitchen, are 
supplied from this enormous manufactory. The cannon-foundery 
is highly deserving of notice. The boring is performed by 
curious machinery, moved by water ; the motion necessary for 
polishing is also effected in the same manner. In the rooms 
where the latter operation was carrying on, I saw a cannon of 
great weight removed from one place to another, with the 
greatest facility, by the aid of mechanic principles. Russia 
used formerly to be supplied with her cannon and anchors from 
these works •, and at one period I was informed, these works have 
made above five thousand pieces of ordnance a year, many of 
which used to be exported to foreign stateis. The number of 
men employed within the walls amounts to about one thousand. 
The funds of the company, with every fair allowance for the 
effects of the present war upon the works, are still in a flour- 
ishing condition ; and the establishment is a source cf great o- 
pulence to the surrounding country. The Carron (which means 
the winding stream) flovie up to these works. This river is 
small, but remarkable in history for the sanguinary events which 
hiave occurred in the neighbourhood of its waters. History re- 
cords a bloody battle, fought near its banks, between the Ro- 
mans and the confederate army of the Scots and Picts, in the 
fifth century. Ossian has made its banks the scene of some of 
his poems. The battle between "Wallace and the English, be- 
fore mentioned, was in its vicinity ; and the ancient ballad of 
Gil Morice, upon which the tragedy of Douglas was founded, 
mentions that the mother of the unfortunate young hero lived 
<« on Carron side." This river abounds with trout, remarkable 
for its size and flavour. 

' In th& neighbourhood of the Carron Works is the house 
of Kinnaird, in which Bruce, the Abyssinian traveller, re- 
sided. . . > , . 

In my way to Stirling I passed through the Forest of Torwood 
in which the stump of an old oak is shewn, celebrated for be- 
ing the venerable relick of the tree under which Wallace once 
concealed himself after the battle. In another part of the 
forest is an ancient tower, called by his name. The ride is ex- 



149 

tremely pleasant ail the way to the capital of Stirlingshire, the 
approach to which, from Falkirk, is very beautiful. The prin- 
cipal street of Stirling, which is broad and handsome, and has 
several good shops in it, ascends a considerable hill, at the west- 
ern end of which is the Castle, standing upon a precipitous 
rock, which at a distance gives this city a very obvious resem- 
blance to Edinburgh. The houses appear to be ancient, and 
some of them were, no doubt, splendid in their time. The 
palace of the Earl of Marr, Regent of Scotland, built (but 
never finished) in 1570, still remains, and is very singular in its 
appearance. When the Earl of Marr assumed the disposal of 
the revenues of the rich and celebrated Abbey of Cambusken- 
iieth, which formerly stood where a small village, called the 
Abbey, has since been erected, to the north-east of Stirling, he 
carried away the stones of the holy fabric to build this house 
with. As I was looking at it, I was much pleased with an act 
of courtesy from a gentleman and his lady, who were total 
strangers to me ; they invited me to accompany them to their 
garden adjoining to partake of some fruit, which I found to be 
very good, and, on that account, somewhat of a rarity. As 
the Castle of Stirling has been celebrated for ages, and, like 
the city and its vicinity, often the theatre of events of the 
greatest importance in Scottish history, I paid an early visit to 
that venerable pile, and was much disappointed upon finding 
every part of it converted into barracks. This castle is of 
great antiquity, but the date of the present structure I have not 
been able to learn. During their perambulations through the 
kiegdom, the Scottish sovereigns often resided and held their 
courts in this castle, and at length it became a fixed royal resi- 
dence, after the accession of the Stuart family to the crown of 
Scotland, from the Princes of which family it received various 
augmentations. 

A noble hall, called the Parliament-house, was built by James 

III. who was much attached to this place ; it now forms a part 
of the barracks ; and the chapel-royal adjoining, erected by 
Pope Alexander VI. which ranked as the richest collegiate 
church in the kingdom, has experienced a similar fate. James 

IV. was born here, and James V. and the unhappy Mary, were 
crowned here. In many a page of her melancholy history, this 
castle is mentioned, either as a place of retreat for herself, or a 
prison for her friends. In this castle also the son of James IV. 
had been so long immured, that he had but a very faint recollec- 
tion of his father's person, and actually mistook Admiral Wood 



150 

for him, bursting into tears when informed of his error. This 
castle was often the scene of royal frolic and festivity, as the 
appearance of the adjoining grounds sufficiently denotes. In 
the time of James V. a curious and ridiculous experiment was 
tried from the castle-walls. That monarch was much attached 
to an Italian Friar, whom he preferred to the priory of Tongue- 
land ; this man who was an alchymist, a physician, a projector, 
and a philosopher, was uncommonly popular at the Scottish 
court, where he was believed capable of supernatural achieve- 
ments. At length he pretended that he had the power of 
flying, and proposed to gratify his royal patron and his courtiers 
with an aerial ascension. The day was fixed, the Italian appear- 
ed with his wings, which he had constructed with great care, 
and in the presence of the court, assembled on the occasion, 
he mounted one of the battlements, spread his plumes, and 
vaulted into the air, and, amidst the loud laugh and derision 
of every one present, fell headlong into a dunghill, afford- 
ing a new subiect for the keen satire of William Dunbar, the 
Poet. 

The poor Abbot, to mitigate the severity of the derision which 
his failure had excited, solemnly protested that he should have 
succeeded, had he not unfortunately intermingled the feathers 
of dunghill fowls, which cannot keep upon the wing, with 
those of eagles and nobler birds. 

Many additions were made to the Castle, the last by Queen 
Anne ; and a battery on the sotfth side bears her name. In 1 746 
this fortress resisted the utmost efforts of the rebels ; but, in the 
present improved state of the art of war, it would not be able to 
hold out for three days against a few thousand men, supported 
by able engineers. At the base of the rock on which the Castle 
stands, in a marshy spot, were formerly the royal gardens, 
vestiges of which still appear. A mound of earth, in shape re- 
sembling a table, with seats of earth around it, in which the 
Fetes Champetres, given by the court, were held, is still visible. 

The view from the summit of this rock commands, in various 
directions, scenes which cannot fail of exciting interest in the 
lovers of the bold and picturesque, and in those who are ac- 
quainted with the most extraordinary events in Scottish history. 
The former will contemplate with admiration the meanders of 
the Forth, from its source, near Lochlomond, bathing the shores 
of Stirlingshire, Linlithgow, and the Lothians, on the south, 
and those of Perthshire, Clackmannan, and Fife, on the north, 
and the lofty long Une of natural defence which the Grampian?, 



151 

the Ochills, and the Pentland-hills present ; and the latter willj, 
with a sigh, wander over the remaining impressions of Romau 
encampments, and military stations, through the extent of 
Strathmore, and the Wall of Agricola, between the Forth and 
the Clyde. In Bannockburn, Cambuskenneth, and Pinkie, he 
will trace the shores of the Forth ; he will reflect upon the vi- 
cissitudes of the wars which here so long raged between the 
Scottish and the English nation ; whilst the Hill of Largo, in 
Fife, rises as a monument of the Danish invasion. As I was 
roving towards the inn, at the foot of the rock on which the 
Castle stands, my attention was attracted to a pretty lassie at her 
toilette. My fashionable countrywomen will wonder to hear 
how simple it was •, she was seated by the side of a burn, that 
is, a rivulet, snooding her hair ; which done, she put on her shoes 
and stockings, and went into the town. The windings of the 
Forth present a very extraordinary appearance, resembling the 
folds of a vast serpent, or rather a watery labyrinth. These 
meanders are so numerous, that although, by land, the distance 
to Alloa is only eight miles, and in a direct line not quite six 
miles, it is no less than twenty-four by water. I must confess 
I am not amongst the admirers of* the Forth at this place. Its 
windings impart to the surrounding scenery through which it 
flows a cold, marshy, and agueish appearance. 

The tides of this river exhibit an extraordinary phenomenon, 
which I believe does not occur in any other. For several miles 
above and below Clackmannan, in the shire of that name, in- 
variably, during the recess tides, if the weather is favourable, 
and sometimes also during the spring tides, if the weather is 
unusually fine, after the water has flowed for three hours, it 
runs back for an hour and a half, nearly as far as when it began 
to flow, upon which it returns immediately, and flows during 
another hour and a half, as high as before ; and this change 
takes place both in the flood and ebb tides, so that this river 
has double the number of tides of any other. The sailors call 
jt a leaky tide. No one has attempted to account for it. 

The Carse of Stirling is generally considered to be a level 
ground, and it is thought that the waters of the Forth are 
flowed over it ; in corroboration ot its appearance, some years 
since a complete boat was found near Falkirk, five fathoms deep 
in clay, and anchors have been dug up between Stirling and 
Alloa. The great church of Stirling is an ancient cathedral of 
Gothic architecture, erected by James V. in 1494, but long 
since denuded of its ornaments. When General Monk be- 



152 

sieged the castle in 1651, he raised his batteries in the church- 
yard, and the steeple and roof of the church still exhibit the 
marks of bullets, discharged from the garrison. The neigbour- 
hood abounds with beautiful walks, and the remains of many a 
venerable and holy pile. 

The Tolbooth is an old and defective prison, and the new one 
then building appeared to me to be insecure in its construction, 
and objectionable in its design. In the old prison, to the credit 
of the county, there were only two smugglers, and a few debtors* 
In this place I was shewn a small vessel, called the Jug, which 
is the legal standard of dry measure in Scotland ; the firlot, for 
barley, malt, and oats, ought to contain thirty-one times the 
cubical contents of this jug. I cannot help here lamenting the 
deplorable situation of two miserable maniacs, whom I presume, 
for want of other accommodation, I found immured in two 
gloomy damp caves, the gates of which opened towards the 
street, and, from the appearance of the earth before them, 
looked as if they had not been opened for a long time, the 
windows on the other side being used to introduce their food = 
One of these unfortunate wretches was frequently raving, and 
had, according to the report of the gaoler, been confined near- 
ly for six years, during the winters of which he had been kept 
warm only by the fever that raged within his frame -, for during 
that period, by being permitted to use his hands when the mad- 
ness raged upon him, he scarcely ever kept any clothes on his 
body. The other instance was more shocking, because, with 
medical care and tender treatment, the chances were highly in 
favour of recovery. This unhappy being had been committed 
for setting a stack of hay on fire, was found to be insane at 
times, and had for two years been shut up in this horrible dun- 
geon. These things are entitled to serious investigation. In 
mitigation of these unfortunate cases, Stirling is well known to 
contain within its walls many most humane and opulent institu- 
tions, of various descriptions, for the relief of the destitute and 
miserable. A whimsical instance of primitive calculation is re- 
corded to have taken place in this town. When the knowledge 
of writing and arithmetic was in its infancy in Scotland, the old 
treasurer of the town of Stirling used to keep his accounts by 
the assistance of an old pair of boots, which were suspended on 
each side of his chimney. In one of them he deposited all the 
money he received, and in the other the receipts or vouchers 
for the sums which he has paid, and balanced his accounts at 
the end of the yestr by throwing out the contents of his boots. 



• 153 

and comparing the one with the other. Here are all sorts of 
sectaries ; Churchmen, Papists, Highflyers, Glassites, Camero- 
nians, Whitfieldites, Glassites Episcopaiian, Independents, Uni- 
tarians, Arminians, Burghers, Antiburghers, Calvinists, Halda- 
nites, Socinians, Universal Redemptionists, Sec. and a follower 
of the Church of England is a little surprised, upon his first visit 
in Scotland, to find that he professes a religion which is only 
tolerated. 

Considerable tartan manufactures for the Highlanders were 
once carried on in StirUng to a great extent, but they are now 
much reduced. There are several carpet-manufactories in a 
very flourishing state, and weaving is carried on to a considerable 
extent ; there is also a very productive salmon-fishery on the 
Forth. There is a capital inn here. Stirling has given birth to 
some distinguished literary men, viz. Dr. Robert Pollock, an 
eminent writer, and the First Principal of the University of 
Edinburgh : Dr. Henry, author of the History of Great Bri- 
tain : and Dr. Moore, author of a View of Society and Man- 
ners in Italy, Zeluco, &c. and father of the gallant General Sir 
John Moore. The Grammar-school of Stirling has been long 
celebrated ; and many persons, who have afterwards raised 
themselves to notice in the world, have received their educa- 
tion in it. 



CHAPTER XIV. 

Alloa-'^rumbling Irig'— Devil's pulpit^—Lochle'ven— singular siege—' 
anecdote of queen Mary—lo've triumphant'-^Kinross— -anecdotes of 
Michael Bruce — Ecce Tibur<^ Perth'— historical anecdotes— Goiurie' s 
house— singular mistake — the bridge cf Perth — Bessy Bell and Mary 
Gray— -manufactures of Perth — the prison— —anecdote of a female con- 
•vert—a remark Upon transportation. 

FROM Stirling I set off for Kinross. After a very de- 
lightful drive, I dined at Alloa, at an admirable new inn, just 
opened, which merits every encouragement from travellers. 

U 



154 

Alioa is a seaport, and much known for its many whisky-distS- 
leries, ale-breweries, collieries, and glass-houses. Mr. Erskine, 
a descendant of the Earls of Marr, has a fine park and large 
estate here, upon which there was a noble mansion, called 
Marr-house, lately burnt down. Upon this estate there is tim- 
ber equal to any in age and size in England. This gentleman 
has greatly improved the value of the surrounding country by 
his liberal and successful experiments in agriculture. I was dis- 
appointed in the Tower of Alloa, which ranks amongst the an- 
tiquities of the country, but which appears to be interesting 
only on account of its great age. It is a square building, with 
four round towers, and was erected at the end of the year 1300 : 
the Walls are eleven feet thick, and the highest turret is eighty- 
nine feet from the ground. This building was formerly the 
residence of the Erskines, Earls of Marr ; it is now uninhabi- 
ted. The noble family of Erskine, for more than two centu- 
ries, had the honour of having many of the Scottish Princes 
for their wards, and of directing their education. They gene- 
rally held the Castle of Stirling, and frequently the three princi- 
pal fortresses of the kingdom, viz. Edinburgh, Stirling, and 
Dumbarton. The family are in possession of several tokens 
of antiquity, which prove the great affection and confidence 
which existed between the Stuarts and the Erskines. 

In my way to Kinross I visited the Rumbling Brig, which lies 
jon the left, a little way out of the road. It consists of a slen- 
der one-arch bridge, which strides over a narrow rocky abyss, 
both sides of which are covered with "wood, about ninety feet 
deep, through which the river Devon rolls impetuously over the 
rocks below. About a mile further is the Cauldron Linn, which 
has two large falls. The water rolls into two large cavities, hol- 
lowed out of the rock, and which, owing tothe exasperated foam 
of the waters, resemble two boiling c?.uldrons. One of the caul- 
drons is called the Devil's Pulpit. I have always observed, in 
my rambles, that whatever is vast, horfible, and unprofitable, is 
given to the devil for its author. His Satanic majesty would 
find a good purchaser for his property in a man of taste, and a 
bad one in a man of business. 

In my way to Kinross, I asked a peasant what the hour was j 
his answer was, *' Half to six ;" by which he meant half past 
five. A German would have expressed himself in the same 
manner. 

The road is worse than any turnpike-road in Scotland, and 
the tolls are higher. The approach to the town is extremely 



agreeable j and, as the evening of my arrival was singularly 
beautiful, I, without loss of time, proceeded to the lake, for 
the purpose of visiting the insulated Castle of Lochleven, intie- 
resting to every feeling mind on account of its having been the 
prison of Mary. The boy I brought with me to return with the 
gig, which I had hired at Stirling, seemed very desirous of be- 
ing permitted to accompany me, and appeared to be tolerably 
well acquainted with the melancholy history of the royal suffer- 
er. The lake is about twelve miles in circumference, and is 
bounded by a number of hills. There is an air of gloom about 
the whole of the scene which accords with its interesting story. 
We rowed by the isle of St. Serf, or Servanus, containing a- 
bout thirty-six acres, upon which are the remains of an ancient 
priory. 

I soon afterwards landed on the isle, upon which the ruins 
of the Castle stand. This gloomy solitude is not more than 
two acres in extent ; close to the water were some ancient trees ; 
we entered within its walls, which nearly form a square. The 
principal tower is a square building, standing upon the north 
wall, near its north-west corner, and there is a smaller tower at 
the south-east. We passed through a very small door into the 
square tower, in which there is a deep dungeon, and above a 
vaulted room. This gloomy and venerable pile is of great anti- 
quity, and is mentioned as early as 1334, when it was besieged 
by Sir John De Sterling, with a number of English and Scot- 
tish troops, who, to accelerate the fall of the garrison, built a 
strong and high dam, so as to stop the stream of the river Le- 
ven, which ran eastward out of the lake, which being thus 
shut upi its waters increased upoii the isles, and the garrison 
was threatened with a watery grave. Whilst this shocking sys- 
tem of attack was advancing, the day for the celebration of the 
blessed Margaret, Queen of Scotland, at Dunfermline, ap- 
proached ; and the commander, with many of his soldiers, at- 
tended, and assisted at the solemnity. During their absence, 
four resolute men put off in the night in a small boat ; and, 
without being observed by the troops that remained to prose- 
cute the siege, after great labour, and many an ardent invoca- 
tion of St. Servanus, the protector of the lake, they at last ef- 
fected a breach in the dam, and turned upon the enemy their 
own weapon: the water, thus liberated, rushed put like a tor- 
rent, and swept away their tents and baggage j and, during 
the confusion, the Governor of the Castle, Alan de Vipont, 



15.6 

and his garrison, embarked, attacked and put the besieg- 
ers to flight, and delivered themselves from the English yoke. 

This tale alone would have imparted to the hoary walls an in- 
terest i but, as the prison boundaries of the hapless Mary, cu- 
riosity about them became allied to sensibility. After she had 
separated from Bothwell at Carberry, and surrendered herself up 
to the Confederate Lords, she was conveyed to this secluded for- 
tress, and placed under the custody of the wife of Douglas, of 
Lochleven, the mother of Murray, the natural son of James 
V. who afterwards became Regent. This woman, who had 
asserted that she had been lawfully married to James, that her 
son was the hejr to the Scottish crown, and Mary illegitimate, 
cherished an unrelenting hatred against her lovely and unfortu- 
nate prisoner, who endured from her and her son every rigour 
and insult which could increase the wretchedness of a captivity 
in which she languished for many months, and was forced to 
sign an instrument by which she resigned her crown to her in- 
fant son, and appointed Murray Regent, who assumed the 
reins of government, but soon disgusted his partisans by the 
insolence of his deportment. The effect of such conduct im- 
parted new life to the friends of Mary, who made many at- 
tempts to deliver her from her gloomy captivity, but in vain. 
However, love effected what valour, moved by commiseration, 
could not achieve ; and the bolts and bars of her prison yielded 
to the influence of her beauty and address. George Douglas, 
the brother of her keeper, a youth of eighteen, becaine deep- 
ly enamoured with her. Mary knew how to* feed the flame she 
had kindled by every tender and bewitching blandishment. 
The youth resolved upon her deliverance ; and, having impart- 
ed his scheme to others, on Sunday, the 2d of May, 1^68, 
whilst his bother was at supper, and the rest of the family were 
engaged in their devotions, he stole the keys from his brother's 
chamber, opened the gates, which he re-locked, and conveyed 
the Queen and a female attendant to the only boat belonging to 
the islatid, in which they were rowed to the opposite shore. In 
their passage he threyy the keys into the lake. Scarcely had 
they departed when an alarm was given, and lights were seen 
moving in all directions, but no boat was to be had. Upon the 
Queen's landing she was received with unbounded joy by Lord 
Seaton, Sir James Hamilton, and some attendants, and imme- 
diately mounted a horse, and rode full speed to Niddrie, the seat 
of Lord Seaton, in East Lothian, where she arrived in perfect 
safety, when, after resting for three days, she proceeded to 



1 57' 

Hamilton, which place she i-eached early the next morning. 
After this romantic flight the battle of Langside was fought, 
which ended in the defeat of her adherents ; upon which she 
fled to England, where the meekness with which she endured 
herunexampled sufferings, and the heroic dignity with which she 
obeyed the sanguinary order of the remorseless tyrant, who 
closed them upon the scaffold, have wakened the pity and ad- 
miration of more than two centuries. Not long since, some 
keys were drawn out of the lake by 5ome fishermen, supposed 
to be those which the enamoured Douglas threw into it, but I 
am informed they are too small to have belonged to the gates 
of the fortress. 

The lake is also celebrated for its trout, which is very large ; 
its flesh much resembles that of salmon, and is of a bright pink 
or reddish colour, which is supposed to arise from the vast 
quantity of small red-coloured !>hell-fish which abound in the 
bottom of the loch, and particularly amongst the aquatic plants 
of which there are vast quantities. Their stomachs are often 
found full of this fish. It has been ascertained that the flesh of 
gll the different species of river-trout, which is at first always 
white, becomes red in this lake when the fish grows to a tole- 
rable sizjg. This lake, which receives the contribution of seve- 
ral little rivers, gives rise to the river Leven, which disem- 
bogues itself in the sea, after passing through a considerable 
part of Fifeshire. As we were returning, the house and grounds 
of Mr. Graham, who is absent in India, were pointed out to me, 
they form a part of the northern side of the loch, and have 
a very handsome appearance from the water. This house was 
built by Sir William Bruce, a celebrated architect, in 1685. 

Kinross is a small town, and the capital of the tiny shire 
which bears its name. It is a royal burgh. Most of the houses 
have neat little kitchen-gardens belonging to them, and some 
have plantations of trees, presenting altogether an agreeable 
scene. The inn in the town is tolerably comfortable ; I there 
tasted some of the trout I have described, the flavour of which 
was very fine. This fish is esteemed as a great delicacy at 
Edinburgh and Perth, and in all the towns to which the dis- 
tance of carriage will admit of its being conveyed in a state of 
freshness. 

The shores of Lochleven gave birth to Bruce, the Poet, the 
elegance and tenderness of whose song cannot fail to please and 
affect the mind, I cannot do better than describe him in the 



lo8 

feeling manner in which he is mentioned in No. 36 of the Mir- 
ror: — "This Michael Bruce was born in a remote village in Kin- 
ross-shire, and descended from parents remarkable for nothing 
but the innocence and simplicity of their lives; in the 21st 
year of his age he was seized with a consumption, which put 
an end to his life. Nothing, me thinks, has more the power 
of awakening benevolence, than the consideration of genius 
thus depressed by situation, suffered to pine in obscurity, and 
sometimes, as in the case of this unfortunate young man, to 
perish, it may be for want of those comforts and conveniences 
^^hich might have fostered a delicacy of frame, or of mind^ 
ill calculated to bear the hardships which poverty lays on 
both. For my own part, I never pass the place (a little 
hamlet, skirted with a circle of old ash trees, about three miles 
on this side of Kinross) where Michael Bruce resided, I never 
look on his dwelling, a small thatched house, distinguished 
from the cottages of the inhabitants only by a sashed window at 
the end, instead of a lattice, fringed with honey-suckle plant, 
which the poor youth had trained around it, I never find 
myself in that spot, but I stop my horse involuntarily ; and 
looking on the window, which the honey-suckle has now al- 
most covered, in the dream of the moment I picture out a 
gentle figure for the tenant of the mansion ; I wish, and my 
iaeart swells while I do so, that he were alive, and that I were 
a great man, to have the luxury of visiting him there, and 
bidding him be happy." This amiable youth and sweet Poet 
has feelingly depicted the melancholy illness that brought him to 
the grave. 

Starting and shivering in the unconstant wind. 
Meagre, and pale, the ghost of what I was, 

Eeneath some blasted tree I lie reclin'd, 

And count the silent moments as they pass— 

The winged moments, whose iinstaying speed 

No art can stop, or in their course arrest 5 
Whose flight shall shortly count me with the dead, 

And lay me down in peace with them to rest." 

In this little town there are no less than three schools, in each 
of which writing and accounts are taught, at three shillings per 
annum for each pupil. Some small cotton manufactories are 
carried on here. This place is a great thoroughfare, being 
glaced in the high road to Perth, between which and Queen^ 



159 

Ferry It is equidistant. It furnished me with a gig for the 
former place, distant about fifteen English miles ; this mode 
of conveyance I was invited to adopt by the fineness of the 
weather. 

The road to Perth is extremely good, and the country pre- 
sented an appearance of increased luxuriance and cultivation as 
I advanced. Woods and cornfields, hill and dale, every where 
gladdened the eye ; and the looks and habits of the peasantry 
seemed to correspond with the flourishing gaiety of the sur- 
rounding scenery. The superb plain of Gov/rie, extending for 
nearly twenty miles, opened in the most unexpected and beau- 
tiful manner. A short distance from Perth, the windings of the 
Tay, the bridge uniting the rich and romantic country on either 
side, the handsome appearance of the town, the cavalry bar- 
racks, and an expanded view behind, offer to the eye the most 
enchanting prospect. When Agricoia and his army first beheld 
the Tay, and the adjacent plain, upon which Perth at present 
stands, it is recorded that they exclaiaied, with one voice, 
«« Ecce Tibur ! Ecce Campus Martius ! Behold the Tiber ! 
Behold the Field of Mars !" — ^The Italians afterwards called 
the Tay the New Tiber. 

This river, which deservedly excited the eulogium of the 
Roman legions, is the chief of all the Scottish waters, and 
has its source in the western extremity of Perthshire, in the 
district of Breadalbane, on the frontiers of Lorn, in Argyle- 
shire. 

With an exception of the New Town Edinburgh, the town 
of Perth, the capital of the county of Perthshire, is by far the 
best built and most regular of any in Scotland. Perhaps a finer 
situation for a capital could not be found. The streets are broad 
and long, well paved, with handsome buildings on either side, 
and many elegant shops. It appears that anciently particular 
streets were ' inhabited by particular artisans, as the names of 
some, still preserved, seem to indicate. The inns are excellent. 
It would be tedious and foreign to my purpose, to describe this 
beautiful city very minutely i it vi'ill be sufficient to observe, that 
the principal streets, in the old part of the town, are the High 
3nd the South street, both of which are very long, and. that 
George- street, Charlotte-street, the Crescent, Rose Terrace, 
and the Circus, are the most handsome in the new part. This 
town has been subject to some very destructive inundationSj 
which have caused the streets to be raised from time to time 



160 

Many stories, and even whole houses, are to be found below 
the surface of the street. 

The Crescent forms a beautiful curve, and looks towards the 
North Inch, a lawn of the greenest pasture, forming the Race- 
Course, and watered by the Tay. This spot is much resorted 
to as a promenade, and is frequently embellished with many 
elegant and well-dressed ladies, and at the same time disfigured 
by the linen-washerwomen. On the Rose Terrace, to the 
northward of the Crescent, stands an elegant building, which 
was nearly finished, containing the halls and apartments of the 
public seminaries. This highly ornamental building has been 
erected by subscription, many of the donations of which are 
truly noble. The schools of this city have been long very just- 
ly celebrated, and have afforded education to many distinguished 
persons, amongst whom the people of Perth, with infinite pride, 
reckon James Crichton, whose wonderful endowments, both of 
body and mind, obtained him the appellation of " the admirable 
Crichton" and ranked him as the wonder of his species, and the 
eloquent, learned, and refined Lord Mansfield, who, after ob- 
taining at the British Bar, by the invincible powers of his oratory, 
the name of *' the silver-tongued Murray," filled the digni- 
fied office of Chief Justice with a splendour of ability that will 
. shed lustre upon his country for ages to come. The pupils at 
these seminaries are very numerous, and come from various parts 
of Great Britain and Ireland. The system of education, the 
skill of the masters, the salubrity of the climate, the good morals 
of the people, and the cheapness of provisions, contribute to 
render the schools of this town of the first consideration to 
parents in the disposal of their children. Perth presents ano- 
ther instance of the literary inclination of the Scottish people. 
It has a Literary and Antiquarian Society, founded in 1784. 
There is a public library ; and there are also several excellent 
booksellers' shops. One of the principal curiosities now re- 
maining in this town is St. John's Church, a very large and 
ancient structure, now divided into three churches, called the 
East, the Middle, and the West Kirks. In this church John 
Knox preached an animated discourse against the idolatry of the 
Church of Rome. After the sermon, and when the most re- 
spectable citizens had retired to dinner, an enthusiastic priest 
was indiscreet enough to prepare to celebrate Mass, which so in- 
flamed those who had not retired, and those who returned to 
the spot upon hearing of it, that they attacked the priest, de- 
stroyed his images and relicks, and, extending their rage to the 



161 

neighbouring monasteries of the Gray and Black Friars, and 
the Carthusians, nearly levelled them with the earth. Upon 
hearing of these outrages, Queen Mary dispatched an army of 
ssvea thousand men to subdue the insurgents ; but both parties 
being of considerable strength, terms of accommodation were 
.mutually offered and accepted. A treaty was signed, which 
the Queen, who entered Perth in consequence of it, has the 
reputation of having broken, by introducing French troops into 
the city after the Protestant forces had been dismissed. At this 
juncture, as Patrick Murray, one of the reformers, witk his 
family, was viewing the French soldiers, as they marched into 
the town, from the balcony of their house, some of the troops 
fired several shots at the place, and killed his son, a boy about 
eleven years old. When his dead body was pointed out to the 
Queen, historians assert, that, such is the influence of religious 
hostility, she displayed the greatest want of feeling. The peo- 
ple of Perth again revolted: Knox once more Inspired them 
with holy zeal against their oppressors, and victory was on the 
side of the people. In the midst of the tumult the exasperated 
populace demolished the noble abbey and palace of Scone, 
which stood In the neighbourhood. These differences, and 
the advantages obtained against the religion of the Church of 
Rome, led to the final triumphs of the Reformation. As soon 
as the people felt their power, they were not content with the 
mere toleration of their religion, but, headed, by Knox, Will- 
cocks, and others, men of vigorous minds and powerful persua- 
sion, well suited to the times in which they flourished, at length 
succeeded in making their worship the established religion of 
the kingdom. 

Gowrle-ho'use,- so celebrated In history, was, till very lately, 
standing. I saw merely the basement of some part of it, the 
remainder having been pulled down the preceding summer, to 
make room for some other buildings. The walls of the part 
which remained are of a prodigious thickness.. It was erected 
by the Countess of Huntley, in 1520, and In 1746 was present- 
ed by the magistrates to the Duke of Cumberland, who after- 
wards sold It to government for barracks. It was famed for be- 
ing the theatre of the Cowrie conspiracy, one of the most mys- 
terious events in the annals of Scotland. 

As I have mentioned that the Duke of Cumberland was owner 
of this pile, It may not be unpleasant to my readers to peruse 
a ridiculous circumstance which occurred in this town, soon af- 
ter the events which induced the magistrates to present this 

■ X 



162 

house to the royal Commander. Robertson, of Strowan, whose 
poetical talent is well known, was, at an advanced age of life, 
the Chief of a Clan, at the head of which he fought, in the un- 
happy conflict of 1745, against the royal troops at Preston Pans^ 
who there sustained a signal defeat. The old Chieftain obtain- 
ed for his share of the booty the carriage of Sir John Cope, the 
Commander in Chief, which he drove as far as he could to- 
wards the district of Rannock ; and when the roads became 
impassable for the carriage, his vassals carried it into Rannock, 
where he began to examine its contents j and finding, amongst 
other things, several rolls of a brown colour, which, as they 
were in a soldier's carriage, he concluded must be valuable spe- 
cifics for wounds, he ordered them to be sold in the streets of 
Perth, and his vassals went about crying, " Wha'll buy Jonny 
Cope's salve ?" The salve proved upon trial to be rolls of cho- 
colate. 

The bridge of Perth is a simple and elegant, but strong, 
structure, which opens a communication with different great 
roads of thekingdom 5 it was finished in 1771, by subscription. 
It was designed and executed by Mr. Smeaton. Its entire 
length is nine hundred feet, and its breadth only twenty-two 
within the parapets : it is subject to obvious objections on that 
account ; and its narrowness is such, that there is no foot-path 
on the northern side. The piers are founded ten feet beneath 
the bed of the river, upon oaken and beechen piles, and the 
stones laid in puzzalane, and cramped w^^h iron. It has nine 
arches, of which the centre is seventy-five feet in diameter. 
The sum of 26,000/. was expended on this noble and useful 
work. The Commissioners of Forfeited Estates, by his Majes- 
ty's permission, contributed 11,000/. Perth 2,000/. Royal Bo- 
rough 500/. Private Subscribers 4,756/. but, notwithstanding 
these liberal contributions, the building could not have been 
completed, had not the late Earl of Kinnoul, who had retired 
from the tumult and cares of public life, after having essentially 
served his country as a diplomatic representative, with great 
public spirit advanced the remaining sum required, and taken 
the tolls for a security. The debt thus contracted has since 
been discharged, and the toll abolished. 

The village of Bridgend, long time inconsiderable and ne^ 
glected, has participated in the great public advantage derived 
from this structure, and is now a very flourishing appendage of 
the beautiful capital on the opposite shore. 



163 

The environs of Perth afford many subjects for admiration. 
On the northern bank of the river, opposite to the Hill of Mon- 
crief, is the towering Crag of Kinnoul. These two hills seem 
to be rivals in form and grandeur j between these the Tay winds 
with equal majesty and beauty, enlivened by ships moving up 
and down, and reflecting on its bosom a series of neat cottages, 
handsome villas, gardens, rising woods, flourishing plantations, 
and rich waving cornfields. Every point of view is at once 
picturesque, happy, social, and civilized. A great part of this 
country abounds with the fossil treasures of nature. From the 
summit of Moncrief-hill, turning eastward, may be seen the 
Frith of Tay, the rich Carse of Gowie, and the populous 
northern coast of Fife j to the westward. Upper Strathern, and 
Strath Tay.* Wild heaths, and full-grown woods and cultivated 
grounds, banquet the eye with contrasted character. The pros- 
pect from Kinnoul-hill, though less extensive, is thought to be 
more beautiful than from that of Moncrief. From the former, 
the eye, delighted, ranges over the vast plain of Strajhmere, 
the Grampian Mountains, the windings of the Tay, Perth and 
its gay environs, the coast of Fife, and the German Ocean. 
There are several handsome mansions to be met with in these 
excursions, the principal of which is Dupplin-house, the seat of 
Lord Kinnoul. 

The ride to Methven is also well worth the exertion of the 
traveller, particularly of the romantic wanderer, who, in this 
ramble, near to the bridge of Dalcrue, may 

" From rose and hawthorn shake the tear," 

upon the grave of Bessy Bell and Mary Gray, so celebrated in 
Scottish song. The tradition which loves to dwell upon the 
memory of these unfortunate young ladies relates that the father 
of Miss Bell was Laird of Kinvaid, in the neighbourhood of 
Lednoch ; that the girls were both very beautiful, and loved 
each other with all the ardour of romantic friendship ; that the 
plague broke out in 1666, when Miss Bell was visiting Miss 
Gray, to escape the contagion of which they erected for them- 

* Strath is an expression peculiar to the Highlands, and more pirliciilarly 
applies to the North Highlands. From the great centrical mountains which 
run from south to north descend a series of others in connection, and 
running parallel to each other, towards the east and west seas } the openings 
between these parallel mountains are called Straths, and form distinct 
districts, and are generally watered by considerable meres, as Strathern» 
Straihmere, Strath -Tay, &c. 



164 

selves a bower, about three quarters of a mile west from Led- 
noch-house, in a secluded spot, called Burn-braes, on the 
side of Brauchie-burn, where they resided in the happy society 
of each other for some time, till at length the pestilence spread- 
ing with great fury, they imbibed it from a young gentle- 
man, who, with a liberality of love somewhat uncommon, was 
enamoured of them both ; and that in this sylvan asylum they 
perished, and were buried in another part of Mr. Gray's ground, 
called the Dronach Haugh, at the foot of a brae of the same 
name, near the bank of the river of Almond. 

The staple manufacture of Perth is linen, which, it is said, was 
at first insensibly established by several itinerant merchants, who 
used to travel through the Highlands to Perth and its vicinity, and 
having acquired some little property by their erratic enterprise, 
at length settled as shopkeepers at Perth, &nd augmented the 
industry of the city by their little capitals and their experience. 
The linen manufacture was also not a little indebted to the trus- 
tees of the forfeited estates, (part of the rent-s of which were 
applicable to the improvements of the country,) who encouraged 
the culture of lint, and the spinning of litien-yarn. The salmon- 
fisheries of the river are very extensive. Fish packed in ice are 
sent to London every spring and part of the sunimer, and there 
used to be a considerable exportation to the ports of the Medi- 
terranean, So abundant are the fisheries, that three thousand 
salmon have been caught in one morning, weighing altogether 
eight-and-forty thousand pounds. The cotton-manufactures 
are also in a flourishing condition ; and cotton-mills, bleach- 
fields, and print-fields, have been erected and formed in various 
situations in and adjoining to the city. The agricultural im- 
provements of the country are coincident with the progress of 
its manufactures'; and wheat, barley, and other kinds of grain, 
are annually exported to London and Edinburgh, to a large 
amount.' Owing to the vicinity of the Highlands, manufactures 
of doe -skins and buck-skins, have been also established ; and 
tallow, bees- Wax, dressed sheep-skins, dressed and raw calf- 
skins, and raw goat-skins, are shipped from this place; boots, 
shoes, and gloves, are also manufactured in large quantities- 
Paper-mills too are established here. r 

Much of the prosperity and opulence of Perth are traceable 
to those causes which seldom produce any thing but desolation 
and poverty. In those unhappy times of public broil, which so 
frequently occur in Scottish history, this town was occasionally 
occupied by opposing armies, which rendered it a market for 



IGb 

every necessary comaiiodity. Dealers created capitals, and, by 
their prudence and enterprize, laid the foundation of all the 
good fortune which has attended this city since the Union. 

The prevailing religion is High Calvinism, and the places of /. 
worship are numerous. The inhabitants have a high character 
for sobriety and decorum of manners. Owing to the number 
of people of rank and respectability, in commerce and trade, 
in the city and its vicinity, the streets are frequently enlivened 
with elegant equipages. The style of living is very handsome, 
and the ladies dress with considerable taste and fashion. On a 
Sunday I observed the philibeg worn, but not generally. The 
whole of this delightful place and its environs strongly reminded 
me of the city of Bonn, on the left bank of the Rhine, known 
in that romantic region by the name of " the Little Pearl." 

I inspected every part of the prison, which is subject to the 
objection of its having no court-yard, a defect in all the prisons 
of Scotland ; but it is clean, well aired, and spacious, compared 
with the tolbooth of Edinburgh. The prison-allowance is poor. 
The felons were very few. The gaoler informed me that some 
time since a young girl received sentence of death, for some 
rather heinous crime j and that, upon being pressed to petition 
to have her punishment commuted to transportation for four- 
teen years, the success of which was assured to her, she for a 
long time persisted in preferring death to banishment, and was 
at last, with great difficulty, prevailed upon to sue for the ex- 
change, which was conceded to her in pity to her youth. The 
principal reason, I was afterwards informed, which induced her 
to prefer death to banishment, arose from her having been 
told, what is the fact, that Government provides no means for 
the return of the convict sentenced to transportation, after the 
expiration of the sentence, so that she, in all human probability, 
would be transported for life. This is a point highly deserving 
the attention of Government, whose faith ought not to be vio- 
lated even with those who, for a period, have by their delin- 
quency forfeited all claims to its ordinary protection. In the 
front of this prison is the following whimsical inscription : — 
" This house loves peace, hates knaves, crimes punisheth, pre- 
serves the laws, and good men honoureth." 



166 



CHAPTER XV. 



Scone— 'tiionlash prophecy-^Omnis Terra — round to'wers—-ihe carse ofGo^w- 
rie'-~farin-ser'vants — 'Dundee — Boethius — Dr. 'Johnson — Aberbrothick 
— the abbe\' — Montrose— Donnotter- castle — Stoneha'ven — -Aberdeen— 
epigrxnn — the nenv bridge— the pier — Marzschal coi/ege-^-Dr. Beat tie— 
the prison- — lunatic asylum. 

BEFORE I quitted Perth I visited Scone, a little village 
which stands about a mile and a half north of Perth, on the op- 
posite side of the river, once famous for the royal palace which 
there, till very lately, gratified the curiosity of the traveller, 
having been the residence of the Scottish Kings, and the place 
where they were crowned. The Abbey I before mentioned also 
stood here. Upon the site, and I believe upon the foundation, 
of the palace of Scone, which was begun by the Earl of Cow- 
rie, and finished by Sir David Murray, a favourite of King 
James VI. a magnificent Gothic mansion, of a red stone, appa- 
rently from the same quarry out of which the bridge was built, 
has been commenced and nearly finished by the present Lord 
Mansfield. The situation of this princely structure is exquisitely 
fine : it is surrounded with plantations, the Tay finely meander- 
ing along the margin of the extensive lawn in which it stands, 
and the views in all directions, particularly towards Perth, being 
very be'autiful. Adjoining, in a corresponding gloom of yew 
and fir trees, is a mausoleum of the noble family of Stormont, 
composed, as I was informed, of part of the aisle of the ancient 
abbey. It appeared to have been newly faced, and, if I remem- 
ber correctly, was adorned with pinnacles. In this final depo- 
sitory I was informed there is a marble urn, containing the heart 
of a foreign lady, to whom Lord Stormont was first married, 
who died abroad, and requested that this pledge of her love 
might rest in his family cemetery. Mr. Cant observes that this 
Abbey was " founded by Alexander I. A. D. 1114, and was 
dedicated to the Trinity and Michael the Archangel. Our Kings 
were accustomed to be crowned here ; and here the fatal marble 
chair in which they were crowned was kept, which was sent by 
Edward Longshanks to Westminster, where it still remains. 
Edward is supposed to have removed it to counteract an ancient 
prophecy, conceived in the following monkish lines : 



167 

" Ni fallit fatum, Scoti quocunque locatiu?], 
Invenient lapidem, regnare tenentur ibidem. 

" Unless old prophecies and words are vain, 
I Where e'er (his stone: is found the Scots shall reign." 

A prediction which the accession of James VI. to the English 
throne was thought to have consummated. There is a small, 
eminence near the house, called generally Boot-hill, and by 
some writers Omnis Terra, or Every Man's Land : the tradition 
is, that, at a coronation, each person who wished to see k 
brought his boots full of earth, which he emptied, and raised a 
little mound, which enabled him, on his oiun land^ to see the ce- 
remony. It is probable that Boot-hill is a corruption of Moot- 
hill, or the Hill of Meeting ; and amongst the Highlanders it is 
known to this day by the name of Tom-a-Mhord, or the Hill of 
Justice. 

Sudden indisposition, and the time which I lost in consequence, 
prevented me from seeing the Tower of Abernethy, in the town 
of that name, near the confluence of the Earn and Tay, distant, 
as I was informed, about 10 miles from Perth. There is only 
another building of the same kind in Scotland, viz. at Brechen. 
However, from the description given of both by several tourists, 
I should think they do not differ from the round towers which 
I saw at Glendaloch, and other places in Ireland. 

I have seldom quitted any place with more reluctance than I 
did Perth. Soon after I had left it, I entered the Carse of Cow- 
rie, the prideof the Scotch, and the admiration of every tourist. 
It is a long narrow plain, extending nearly from Perth to Dun- 
dee, about sixteen miles along the northern shore of the Tay, 
and is bounded on the north by the Sidlaw and other hills, 
which, sheltering it from that quarter, afford to it a climate be- 
nign and favourable to vegetation. This vast and fertile plain, 
from being naturally a barren sand along the sea-shore, is com- 
posed of the finest soil, washed by heavy rains, which fall near 
the sources of the Tay, the Earn, the Gary, and the Tummel, 
from the Highlands ; the naked summits of whose mountains 
exhibit every evidence of the spoliation. The fertility of the 
artificial soil.thus deposited is extraordinary. There theEnghsh 
traveller will see English agricultural instruments and English 
farming almost every where adopted. As I approached Dun- 
dee, the Tay presented a magnificent expansion, and rendered 
the surrounding scenery of prodigal luxuriance exquisite beyond 
description. The mountains of the Highlands seem to haye 



168 

disrobed themselves to adorn these banks of the Tay, that, as it 
rolls along, every object may correspond with the majesty of its 
waters. 

In the rural economy of this enchanting district, and in many 
parts of the Highlands, it is worthy observation that the farm- 
servants are not admitted into the farmer's family, but have a 
separate house, adjoining to the out-offices, where they reside. 
Besides their wages, they have certain allowances of oatmeal, 
and money for salt •, they have also an English pint of sweet 
milk, or double the quantity of butter-milk, to breakfast, din- 
ner and supper. The farmer also affords them fuel. Thus, 
whilst the Carse resembles Arcadia in beauty, the simple food 
of her swains is Arcadian too. Pork and Bacon, which used 
to be disgusting to the palate of a Highlander, form a greater 
portion of the food of the peasant here than in any other part 
of Scotland. The farmers in this district are very opulent and 
well informed. The road to Dundee is very good, from which 
many bye- roads communicate with the different villages in its 
neighbourhood. 

Dundee is a fine town, the most considerable in Forfarshire. 
The houses are built of stone, the streets are well paved, and 
the market-place is a spacious square, from which the streets 
branch out •, the shops are very respectable, and appear to be 
well supplied with every useful and ornamental article. The 
town-house, which stands in the market-place, is a handsome 
edifice of stone, erected in 1 734, having a neat spire, one hun- 
dred and forty feet high. The upper story is allotted to the pri- 
soners, which, on account of their elevation, are well ventilated 
and secure, and the lower rooms contain the Guildhall, the 
Court-room, &c. Tlie principal structure, amongst the reli- 
gious houses, is St. Andrew's Church, which has an elegant 
spire, and, what is a great rarity in such buildings in Scotland, 
a fine peal of bells. 

The harbour is most advantageously situated for commerce ; 
it has been greatly improved under the liberal care of the magis- 
trates i vessels of the largest burthen can have free access to it. 
At Dundee the Tay is three miles wide ; but, being so well 
sheltered by high land, horses can cross it, at any time, in fer- 
ries that ply on either side. In consequence of the flourishing 
state of commerce the town is very opulent ; and too much 
praise cannot be bestowed on the liberal and active spirit of the 
magistrates to render it worthy of the eminent local advantages 
which it possesses. The staple manufacture of the town is linen j 



169 

and a great deal of canvas or sail-cloth, sack-cloth and cotton- 
bagging, is made here. There are also several rope manufactories. 
In this place the dying of linen-yarn is brought to a greater de- 
gree of perfection than any where else in Great Britain, and 
affords employ for several thousand persons. The salmon -fish- 
eries on the Tay are also very productive. This town particu- 
larly has at various eras experienced the ravages of war, during 
the troubles of Charles and the usurpation of Cromwell. At 
the time when General Monk carried it by storm, so great were 
its riches, in consequence of the neighbouring gentlemen having 
brought their moveable wealth into it as a place of security, that 
every private soldier in the General's army had 60/. sterling for 
his share of the spoils, which were conveyed in sixty vessels to 
England. The celebrated Wallace was educated here ; and 
Hector Boece, or Boethius, the historian, was born here in 
1470, and studied with great success in the University of 
Paris, where he formed a lasting and honourable friendship 
with Erasmus. In 1500 he was recalled to Aberdeen by 
Bishop Elphingston, who made him Principal of that univer- 
sity. 

Although his friend Erasmus has said of him that he knew 
not what it was to make a he, it appears tolerably evident that 
he had a strong propensity to fiction. Dr. Johnson thus ele- 
gantly speaks of him : " The style of Boethius, though per- 
haps not always rigorously pure, is formed with great diligence 
upon ancient models, and wholly uninfected with monastic bar- 
barity. His history is written with eloquence and vigour, but 
his fabulousness and credulity are justly blamed. The fabulous- 
ness, if he was the author of the fiction, is a fault, for which no 
apology can be made ; but his credulity may be excused in an 
age when all men were credulous. Learning was then rising in 
the world, but ages so long accustomed to darkness were too 
much dazzled with its light to see any thing distinctly. The 
first race of scholars in the fifteenth century, and some time af- 
ter, were for the most part learning to speak rather than to 
think, and were therefore more studious of elegance than 
truth. The cotemporaries of Boethius thought it sufficient 
to know what the ancients had delivered. The examina- 
tion of tenets and of facts was reserved for another genera- 
tion." 

Dundee was also the place of nativity of the late gallant 
Lord Duncan. This town, like Perth, displays a strong pas- 
sion for literaru'-e and education. Besides a public grammar- 

Y 



170 

school, it has English schools, in which, under able masters, 
the useful and elegant branches of learning are taught. The 
inns are good here. The neighbourhood is adorned with many- 
neat and elegant villas, which exhibit the opulence of the 
town and the refinement of the inhabitants. The population 
is estimated at upwards of twenty-six thousand persons. 

How singular is it, that, in passing through so fine a town. 
Dr. Johnson should only have noticed it by observing, " We 
stopped awhile at Dundee, where I remember Mothing remark- 
able." But perhaps the melancholy humour in which he left 
the University of St. Andrew's, when the naturally morbid 
gloom of his mind appears to have assumed a darker hue from 
having contemplated, as he has praised it, " a college alienated, 
and a church profaned," was too settled to admit of his feeling 
and commemorating the charms of a gay, graceful, and flou- 
rishing city. 

The road to Abroath, or Aberbrothick, will sadly lose by a 
comparison with that which I had left behind, and I met with 
nothing to enter in my journal till I reached that town, which 
is of a tolerable size, and stands upon a small plain, in an am- 
phitheatre formed by a small ridge of hills. The harbour, 
which is small, but commodious, is entirely artificial, and 
formed by piers, which afford protection to vessels when they 
are not able to make any other port. At spring-tides, which 
rise here fifteen feet, ships of two hundred tons, and, at ordi- 
nary tides, ships of one hundred tons, can be admitted. This 
harbour is protected by a small neat battery, which originated 
from an attack made on the town, during the American war, by 
a privateer. 

But what are most attractive to a traveller in this place are 
the ruins of the monastery, which excite a high impression of 
the magnificence of this venerable pile, in its perfect state. It 
was founded by William the Lion, in 1178, and dedicated to 
the celebrated Primate, Thomas a-Becket. The monks were 
of the Tyronesian Order, from Kelso. The last abbot was Car- 
dinal Beaton, who resembled Wolsey in power and splendour. 
The buildings of this religious establishment were enclosed in a 
wall, and must have covered a considerable extent of ground. 
The abbey was built of a red stone, found in the neighbourhood, 
unfortunately very friable. From its picturesque remains, it is 
evident that it must have originally possessed much beauty of ar- 
chitecture and sculpture ; but time and religious phrensy seem 
to have overturned its solid towers, and shattered its graceful 



171 

columns, and unroofed its Gothic cloisters with peculiar avidity, 
and with a more than ordinary sweep of desolation. I nriay be 
permitted to mention how I found myself accommodated here, 
as I have before done, and throughout shall continue to do j 
because an idea has gone forth in my own country, that, upon 
quitting Edinburgh, the traveller can seldom meet with comfort 
in any other part of Scotland but at the hospitable dwellings of 
private individuals to whom he may be introduced : the princi- 
pal inn at this place is excellent. The trade of this place is con- 
siderable, consisting chiefly of osnaburgs, brown linen, and 
sailcloth. 

The road to Montrose, the next stage, is barren of beauty. 
The town is very neat and handsome, and singularly situated on 
a peninsula formed by the rivers of the South and North Esk, 
and the German Ocean ; the harbour is not easy of access, but 
will admit vessels of large burthen. The principal manufactures 
are linen, yarn, and thread, sheeting and sail-cloth^ and rope- 
works. Tanning is also carried on ; and there is a considerable 
fishery on the coast. This town is inhabited by many genteel 
persons of independent fortune, who naturally impart to the 
place a spirit of gaiety and refinement. It has a theatre and 
assemblies. Some of its public buildings are very respectable in 
appearance. The Episcopalian spirit of Dr. Johnson was roused 
and delighted here by visiting the English chapel, and contem- 
plating an organ In it. It has also public schools, an hospital, 
and a large public library. The bridge over the South Esk 
is handsome. The Pretender slept here on the 13th of Fe- 
bruary, 17 16, the night before he effected his escape to 
France. The population consists of about five thousand per- 
sons. 

In my way to Aberdeen from Montrose, along the sea-coast, 
I passed through the towns of St. Cyrus, Benholm., Inverbervie, 
and Stonehaven. The ruins of Donnotter-castle, very near 
Stonehaven, the property of Mr. Keith, of Ravelstone, are very 
ancient. The rock upon which they stand is divided from the 
main land by a deep chasm. Before the use of fire-arms this 
castle was considered so impregnable, that, in 1661, the regalia 
of Scotland was deposited in it, for protection from the English 
army. From Montrose, Stonehaven is prettily situated, and 
well adapted for commerce. The harbour is good and safe. 
Its manufactures are sail-cloths, osnaburgs, brown linens, twist, 
worsted and thread stockings. Near the town is a new village, 
(built by Mr. Barclay, of Urie, a very worthy gentleman), caU 



172 

led also Stonehaven. From this place to Aberdeen the road i> 
very good. Dull successive prospects of sterility without gran- 
deur, and cultivation without gaiety, an absence of peasantry 
and trees on one side, and an interminable ocean on the other, 
prevented the eye from administering much gratification to the 
mind, and made me feel, with considerable emotion, my de- 
pendence upon Nature for some of my happiest enjoyments. 
Deeply did I regret that I had not taken another route ; and 
more so, for the sake of Scotland, that Boswell had not con- 
ducted his illustrious companion through parts of his country 
better calcuated to soften the rigour of his prejudices. How- 
ever, the accommodations all the way are good. 

After a long and tedious route, I was refreshed by seeing the 
capital of Aberdeenshire open upon me ; and I entered it with 
the feelings of one who had escaped from scenes he would wish 
never to revisit. 

As I entered New Aberdeen, I beheld, amongst the first ob- 
jects, the active and liberal hand of improvement before me, 
and on every side. 

I was the bearer of letters to Major-General Macdonald, the 
Commander of the district (whpse military skill and gallantry in 
the Low Countries and in Holland would derive no additional 
lustre from any eulogium of mine), and to other gentlemen who 
received me with characteristic politeness and attention. After 
having secured rooms at an excellent hotel, in my walks through 
this learned and celebrated city I was much gratified by obser- 
ving that the streets were spacious, and the houses in general 
very handsome, being for the most part built of the same sort of 
granite as that with which the streets of London are paved j it 
is dug from a quarry in the neighbourhood. This circumstance 
and the encouragement which the talents of the Scotch receive 
in England, gave rise to the follovying epigram, as it appeared in 
1764: 

The new Scottish pavement is worthy of praise; 
We're indebted to Scotland for meiiding our 'V^'ajs j 
But what we can never forgive 'em, some say, 
Is that they have taken our posts all aiAJoy. 

In consequence of the town being built in several places upon 
ridges, the tops of some of the streets are at the base of others. 
The cross, which is in the centre of Castle street, is much ad- 
mired y it is an octagon stone building, richly ornaniented with 



has reiievos of the Kings of Scotland, from James I. to James 
VI. with a Corinthian column in the middle, surmounted by an 
unicorn. 

But, amongst the instances which may be adduced to shew the 
rapidly-increasing opulence of this city, the New Bridge attracts 
the earliest notice of the traveller, as he passes over it in his way 
from Perth. This noble structure was raised in 1803-4, and is 
built of the same granite as the houses, and consists of one prin- 
cipal arch, of 130 feet span, which springs over the Denburn 
Valley, in the line of the new south entry, called Union-street. 
The width is forty feet within the parapet walls. The view 
through this arch below, when I made a sketch, is extremely 
beautiful. The thin pyramidal ornaments upon the balustrades 
are unworthy of the taste and refinement of so distinguished a 
city, and can answer no purpose that I could discover but to at- 
tract the attention of the lightning- This bridge was designed 
by Mr. Thomas Fletcher, of Aberdeen, engineer. 

A more important, but not so elegant a public work, is the 
pier, close to the town, at the mouth of the river Dee ; it well 
deserves the attention of the traveller. The harbour of Aber- 
deen is naturally what is called a Bar harbour, in consequence 
of the easterly and north-easterly storms forming a ridge of sand 
at the mouth of it, which at low tide is seldom covered with 
water more than three feet deep. Frequent and dreadful used 
to be the shipwrecks of vessels riding at anchor in the roads in 
foul weather, until the flow of tide enabled them to find pro- 
tection in the harbour. After many ineffectual efforts to re- 
move so destructive an evil, the spirit and munificence of the 
town have triumphed over the difficulties of nature, and under 
the direction of the celebrated Mr. Smeaton, and at an ex- 
pense of upwards of 20,000/. a pier one thousand two hun- 
dred feet in length, gradually increasing in thickness and height 
as it approaches the sea, where the head or rounding is sixty 
feet diameter at the base, and the perpendicular elevation thir- 
ty-eight feet, has been erected on the north side of the har- 
bour ; the expense of this is defrayed by doubling the harbour- 
dues. The whole is of granite j and some of the outside stones 
of this mighty piece of masonry are above three tons weight, 
with hewn beds ; there are now seventeen fathoms at low 
water a little to the south of the bar, and from eight to nine 
fathoms at the harbour's mouthy where there were formerly but 
a few feet. 



174 

New Aberdeen is chiefly celebrated for the Marischai Col- 
lege and University, situated in Broad-street, founded and en- 
dowed by George, Earl Marischai of Scotland, in 1393. It is 
a large sombre pile, and contains, besides lecture-rooms for the 
different classes, the public schools for conferring of degrees, a 
common hall, the library, a small museum of natural history 
and antiquities, and an observatory well furnished with a very 
valuable astronomical apparatus. The government of this 
learned establishment consists of a Principal, three Professors of 
philosophy, one of divinity, and others for mathematics, chym- 
istry, medicine, and oriental languages ; and there are many 
bursaries for poor students. A bursar is a student, who, for a 
certain number of years, enjoys a small exhibition or allowance, 
called in Scotland a bursar, or bursary. A student who has no 
bursary is, with a similar misapplication of the word, as it is 
used in these times at Aberdeen, called a libertine. This col- 
lege owes not a little of its lustre to the character and literary 
productions of the late truly amiable and elegant Dr. Beat- 
tie, who from having been usher to the grammar-school at 
Aberdeen, was most honourably elevated to the chair of moral 
philosophy in this college. Amongst the numerous works of 
this distinguished writer, his Minstrel, and his Essay on the 
Nature and Immutability of Truth, are entitled to pre-emi- 
nence. Poetry never had a more delicate and feeling votary, 
nor religion a more acute and fervid apostle. His refined 
modesty acted upon his rich and cultivated mind as a fine veil 
upon a beautiful face, increasing the charms which it rather 
covered than concealed. The piety of his Sovereign, capti- 
vated with the eloquence of the holy advocate, sought for the 
pleasures of personal conversation with him. Dr. Beattie had 
the peculiar honour of an interview with their Majesties, un- 
restrained by the harassing forms and depressive splendour of 
a court, who paid the most flattering compliments to his hal- 
lowed labours, and more substantially rewarded them with a 
pension. Such an application of resources derived by a be- 
loved Monarch from a loyal people resembles, as was once ob- 
served upon a memorable occasion, the Sun, which extracts 
moisture from the earth, to replace it in refreshing dews. 
The writings and hfe of this unblemished man coincide with 
pure design and perfect execution. All that he inculcated he •^ 
practised. He arrested the thoughtless, he fixed the waver- - 
ing, he confirmed the good. His domestic sorrows were great 
and many ; his philosophy, however, was of a divine nature, 



175 

and he submitted to them v^hh a resignation which seemed to 
be derived from Heaven, where he is gone to mingle with the 
spirits of the good and great, who preceded him in their flight 
to immortality. 

The Senatus Academlcns of Marischal College consists of the 
following members :— 

Right Hun. Lord Auckland, Chancellor, 

Alex. Baxter, Esq. Rector. 
William L. Brown, Principal,— —Patron, the Crowi). 
W.L.Brown, Divinity. Town of Aberdee.i.- 

james K.dd, Oriental Languages. Sir. Alex. Ramsay. 

W. Livingstone, Medicine. Crown 

John Stuart, G.eelc. Ditto 

Geo. Glennie, Moral Phil, and Logic. Ditto.' 

Rob. Hamilton, ^ Natural Philosophy, Ditto 

Ja. Beattje, Natural History. Ditto 

Patrick Copland, Mathematics Town of Aberdeen. 

George French, Chymistiy. College. 

Ip the market-place, which is a handsome oblong square, is 
the town-house, with a handsome spire ; and adjoining this is 
thetolbooth, a gloomy square building, about one hundred and 
twenty feet high, in the tower of which there is a depot of 
small arms, and the fragments of a maiden, or guillotine. 
Whilst the city is receiving so many embellishments, it would 
be well if the magistrates would erect another gaol in the room 
of the present one. The chambers, or rather dungeons, of this 
gloomy abode, every one of which I inspected, are small, con- 
fined, badly ventilated, and loathsome. Some of those mise- 
rable beings, who may be destined to the rigours of confine- 
ment m this town, may hereafter find accommodations equally 
secure and more healthy in the bridewell which is building in its 
vicinity i but as the town must, I presume, have a tolbooth for 
the safe custody of criminals committed for trial, or punish- 
ment of very serious ofFences, a traveller may be permitted 
to submit, with deference, his feelings upon the subject, to 
the humane and enlightened magistracy of this town; not doubt- 
ing that when their resources will admit, when other difficul- 
ties, which perhaps at present obstruct their intentions, are 
removed, they will consider, that, by restraining the persons 
ot those who violate the laws, the legislature never intended 
that they should incur the superadded miserv of disease and 
sickness. 



176 

That there is a great share of humanity as well as liberality 
in the town, is evident from the number of asylums for the 
sick and infirm which it contains, amongst which the Lunatic 
Hosphal, built and principally supported by subscription, and 
very properly removed about a mile from the town, deserves 
attention for its neatness and order, and the excellent treat- 
ment of the unfortunate objects confined within its walls. 
Dr. Dyce, physician to this hospital, has tried an experiment 
upon some of the patients, in violent cases, which has been at- 
tended with temporary success. He has had a machine like a 
pump made, into which the maniac Is shut, and so closely con- 
fined, in an erect poshion, as not to be able to move, in which 
state water is pumped upon his bare head. The terror pro- 
duced by this process has, I believe, never failed to subdue 
the paroxysm, and to render the patient much milder and more 
rational. The patients have spacious grounds to walk in ; the 
violent are separated from the convalescent, and their rooms 
were remakably clean and comfortable. The whole had that 
neat and sprightly appearance which I should conceive so ne- 
cessary to sooth and gradually restore the mind suffering under 
the heaviest visitation of the Almighty. 

The bridewell, as far as I could judge, will, when finished, 
in some degree resemble that at Edinburgh : it was constructing 
of the granite I have had occasion to mention before, which is 
almost the only mineral production of Aberdeenshire, and 
with which, either upon the surface or in quarry, the county 
abounds. This stone has a tendency to split only in one direc- 
tion, and the common masons know how to split it into blocks, 
and they afterwards cut it, although astonishingly hard, with 
uncommon skill and dexterity. The chippings are found very 
good for roads. 



177 



CHAPTER XVI. 

'Trade of Neiv Aberdeen— manufactures — shipping— -land 'valuable-^Dr, 
'Johnson' s illiberality — infirmary— medical society— literary characters. 
The Athenceum^Old Aberdeen—jurisdiction of magistrates— the sheriffs 
court'-^society of ad'vocates in Abet deen— King's college— 'distinguished 
characters^— Danish anecdote. 

ABERDEEN, in regard to population and trade, is 
reckoned the third town in Scotland. The number of inhabi- 
tants, by the last census, was computed at twenty-seven thou- 
sand } but it has been increasing very rapidly for some years past, 
and at this time it is supposed to contain at least thirty thousand 
inhabitants. Its trade is very various, and pretty extensive. 
The imports, as far as the difficulties of the present war will 
admit, are chiefly from the Baltic, Archangel, Holland, and 
America: the articles brought from these places are mostly 
such as are calculated for manufacturers. There is, at present, 
very little export direct from this town, but its manufactures are 
circulated through the whole island, and part of them exported 
from other place^. The principal article of export is worsted 
stockings, knitted on wires, which, at a former period, this place 
sent into Germany and Holknd in very great quantities ; indeed 
it at one time supplied a great part of the Continent with this 
article, through the medium of Holland, and it formed a very 
extensive and profitable traffic both for the manufacturers and 
the industrious females in the country all round, by the latter 
of whom these stockings were wrought. Since the commence- 
ment of the present war, however, this trade has suffered very 
much, and is now almost totally annihilated, owing to the very 
severe restrictions upon our intercourse with the Continent ; 
what little, therefore, is done in this way at present, is merely 
what is required in Britain itself ; and the article of this kind 
made for home consumption is much finer than that usually sent 
to the Continent^ and indeed much higher priced than stockings 
made on frames, the consequence of which is, that but very few 
comparatively of knitted stockings are required. 

The principal manufactures in Aberdeen at present consist of 
cottons and linens, various descriptions of which are made in 
great perfection, and in very considerable quantities j there are 

Z 



178 

also several very extensive manufactories of vs^hite and coloured 
threads, for v«rhich articles Aberdeen has been long famous. 
One house, of very great extent, embraces the manufacture of 
threads, linens, ducks and sail cloth, and this indeed may be 
justly reckoned the largest manufactory in the north of Scot- 
land : there are some very large mills belonging to it on the 
river Don, in the neighbourhood of the town, where their yarns 
are spun and twisted by machinery, and where their bleaching 
is carried on ; their weaving is done partly in the town and 
suburbs, but chiefly in the country around, where they have 
looms in almost every town and village to the distance of forty 
or fifty miles. In short, to give some idea of the extent of this 
manufactory, it may be sufficient to remark that it employs from 
seven to eight hundred weavers, and the number of hands en- 
gaged in its various departments may be some thousands, con- 
sisting of both sexesj and almost of every age. 

Though this is by far the most extensive, there are two 
other thread-manufactories of no inconsiderable note, besides 
several inferior ones. In cotton goods, too, the manufacture of 
this place is very considerable. There are two principal cotton- 
works, to one of which is attached a print-field. The mills be- 
longing to this latter are also situated on the river Don, and are 
perhaps the second, if not the first, in point of extent, in Scot- 
land : here the yarn is spun and twisted by water machinery, 
and here also the bleaching and printing is carried on. The 
produce of this manufactory is sold throughout all Scotland 
and England, and the concern has for several years proved very 
useful to the public, and very lucrative to its spirited proprie- 
tors. 

The next considerable work of this nature is managed by a 
steam engine ; and, though of late establishment,, promises also 
great utility and prosperity. It is chiefly, for the present, con- 
fined to the manufacture of sail-yarns, and of plain goods ; but 
it is yet in its infancy, and will, perhaps, soon extend its limits, 
as well as its variety of manufactures. There are several smal- 
ler manufactories of cotton goods, of various kinds, the produce 
of which is sold in the town and neighbourhood. In this place 
there are many other pretty considerable concerns, such as 
breweries, tanneries, soap and candle works, and two found e- 
ries ; also a coach-manufactory,, where travelling vehicles of all 
descriptions are made in a very neat style. 

One very considerable branch of trade here is fishing, by 
which a great deal of money has been realised ; it consists chief- 



179 

ly in salmon and herrings for curing. Very great quantities of 
salmon are caught and cured here annually, and sent to the Lon- 
don market ; the gentlemen concerned in this trade, besides the 
fisheries about Aberdeen, have others at different places in the 
neighbouring counties, from which they also send to London 
every year very considerable quantities. This trade has proved 
a source of unexpected and almost inexhaustible wealth to the 
adventurers. Some gentlemen here have herring- fisheries in 
the Murray Frith and Frith of Forth, by which they occasionally 
draw great profits. 

There is a very considerable tonnage of shipping belonging 
to the port of Aberdeen, consisting of vessels from forty or fif- 
ty to seven or eight hundred tons, most of which are built at 
the port, and one ship was lately built here of nine hundred 
tons. 

The shipping is very variously employed, some of it in Go- 
vernment service, some in the foreign trade direct with Aber- 
deen itself, some with other places, and the rest in the coasting 
trade, which, considering the size of the town, employs a very 
great part. For the supply and equipment of the shipping, 
there are also several manufactories of cordage and sail-cloths. 

An acre of land here is worth double the rent of an acre in 
the neighbourhood of London, owing to the absence of poor- 
rates. 

It is also celebrated for pickled pork, with which the Dutch 
used formerly to victual their East-India vessels and ships of 
war. Aberdeen also has great reputation for the excellence of 
its salt and fresh butter. Boswell mentions that Dr. Johnson 
laughed heartily upon being informed that Cromwell's soldiers 
taught the Aberdeen people to niake shoes and stockings, and to 
plant cabbages. Whoever thus informed the melancholy sage 
must have been in a great ^rror indeed. Aberdeen is a place of 
great antiquity, and has for a long period of time carried on an 
extensive intercourse with various parts of the Continent of 
Europe, which doubtless would have imparted to her enterpri- 
sing natives the discovery of such primary comforts long before 
that period, had they not arisen, as amongst their southern bre- 
thren, with the gradual progress of civilization. The freedom 
of the city was conferred upon Dr, Johnson, and this seems to 
have been the only derisive remark he made upon the people of 
Aberdeen. 

The infirmary, or hospital, in Aberdeen, is visited by two re- 
spectable physicians, under whom several young men attend » 



180 

and in this way the youth have almost every variety in practice 
to exemplify the private instructions of the physicians. There 
is no professed school of medicine in Aberdeen ; but though 
this be wanting, the medical professors in Aberdeen have long 
borne a distinguished character. This is ponfirmpd in a great 
degree by the number of young rnen v/ho study medicine in 
Aberdeen. Many students from England frec|uent Aberdeen. 

There is also a Medical Society, supported by thp students. 
By their contributions books are principally purchased ; and it 
Is now supposed to be a rnatter pf the first importance to get 
entered as a member in this society, for the benefit of the li- 
brary, which is very extensive. The student^ likewise have 
many other advantages in this society, from discourses which 
they deliver, and by the comments which such discourses draw 
forth. 

In Aberdeen there are upwards of twenty clergymen, inclu- 
ding those in the established church and episcopalian chapels, as 
well as sectaries. 

Very few of these clergymen are authors, though most of 
them are distinguished for their erudition and intelligence. Dr. 
Brown, Principal of Marischal College, and one of the ministers 
of the established church, is thought to be an eloquent preacher, 
and an animated speaker in the General Assembly. Jle is au- 
thor of a volume of Sermons, an Essay on the Natural Equality 
of Man, and a Poem on Sensibility. Besides these, he has 
published several small tracts and single sermons, and a new edi- 
tion of Leland's View of Deistical Writers, with an excellent 
appendix. He succeeded Dr. Campbell, who wrote in opposi- 
tion to Hume on Miracles. This writer is well known to the 
literary world ; the general characteristic of his writings seems 
to be great vigour and acuteness of intellect. 

Mr- Cadiner, of St. Paul's Chapel in Aberdeen, (an English 
chapel,) has lately published a Tour through Ceylon. He suc- 
ceeded Mr. Alcock in this chapel, who, as a preacher, was one 
of the firs^ order. His sermons were finely conceived, uniformly 
composed with neatness, and in many instances with peculiar fe- 
licity of diction. ^ 

Bishop Skinner, of the Scots Episcopal Church in Aberdeen, 
is author of a book called Primitive Truth. It is principally in 
vindication of the episcopal establishment. He writes several 
other small tracts, and is assisted by his son, Mr. William Skin- 
iper, a graduate of Oxford, who is considered as a very excellent 
preacher. 



181 

The literary characters of Aberdeen are many, though there 
are not many authors. The booksellers are very numerous, and 
monthly supply the town and country with most of the books of 
character, as they appear in London. All the periodical publica- 
tions are widely disseminated about Aberdeen ; and, in conjunc- 
tion with the London newspapers, diffuse a very general intelli- 
gence among all classes. Indeed the information which may be 
acquired here by literary people, Ts, in almost every instance, 
little inferior to London ; for, independently of the foregoing 
means, there is a literary establishment upon an extensive scale, 
called the Athenseum, superintended by Mr. Brown, bookseller, 
and of which he is principal proprietor, where all the London 
newspapers, four days after they appear in London, and most of 
the periodical publications, and many political tracts, are taken in. 
This place is well attended, and contributes to add to the general 
intelligence which pervades the people of this part of Scot- 
land. 

There is a very extensive circulating library, containing many 
thousand volumes, and constantly enlarged by the new publica- 
tions, with a liberality and taste v^^hich do credit to the pro- 
prietor. 

As far as my opportunities admitted, the society here seemed 
to display the elegance of refinement, and the luxury of opu- 
lence. 

Old Aberdeen is about a mile to the northward of the New 
Town, at the mouth of the river Don. This town is compre- 
hended under the parish of Oldmachar, as New Aberdeen is 
under the parish of St. Nicholas. The magistrates of the one 
town have no connection with the other ; but it is believed the 
magistrates of Old Aberdeen seldom exercise their jurisdiction 
as magistrates. It is different in the New Town, where their 
power and jurisdiction are exercised, in all cases concerning 
personal property, to the highest extent : their jurisdiction is 
frequently exercised in criminal matters ; but it is generally un- 
derstood to be restricted to the lesser delinquencies : that which 
involves any crime of magnitude is generally left to be tried by 
the Circuit Court. In this court the Lords of Justiciary preside, 
and take cognizance of all appeals in civil cases, from the infe- 
rior courts, under twelve pounds sterling. 

In civil and criminal cases, the jurisdiction of the sheriff in 
the county is much the same as the baillies in the burghs ; with 
this difference, however, that the jurisdiction of the magistrates 
of burghs is limited to the burgh exclusively, but that of the 



182 

sheriffs extends also to the county, like that of the magis- 
trates. 

The magistrates of burghs cannot be expected to dispense 
justice always with great propriety, where points of law are in- 
volved in the issue of the case. They accordingly have assist- 
ants, who are acquainted with the law. la some burghs these 
assistants are designated assessors, in others consulters, and fre- 
quently the duty falls upoil* the town-clerks ; but still, as the 
magistrate (generally a mercantile man) is the judge, where he 
is obstinate in his own determination, without much knowledge 
of the law, (which is too often the case,) the course of justice is 
perverted. 

The Sheriff's Court is superintended by a Judge, denominated 
a Sheriff Depute. He is named from the Faculty of Advocates 
in Edinburgh. The practical part of the business, however, 
falls upon the Sheriff Substitutey who is generally called from the 
practitioners before the inferior court. 

The Commissary Court is a remnant of the ecclesiastical ju- 
risdiction of the bishops : their business is not extensive ; it is 
principally limited to the proving and establishing of titles to 
the personal estates of those who are dead. The dues upon 
this latter procedure are heavy, and very much complained of. 
Upon them the Commissary's living principally depends. In- 
deed the general opinion is against the Commissaty Court ; for 
it creates a tax upon the commission of property from the dead 
to the living, merely for the Commissary's emolument, whose 
jurisdiction is so trifling in other matters that it could be easily 
accomplished in the Sheriff's Court. The jurisdiction of a Com- 
missary is not limited always to a single county j it frequently 
embraces two or three. 

Before the Sheriff, Baillie, and Commissary Courts, the same 
lawyers practice, and conduct business. In Aberdeen they are 
designated Advocates ; this title, and other privileges, they en- 
joy by royal charter. In other provincial towns they are only 
designated " Writers." In Aberdeen there are no law classes. 
In the King's College there is a professorship for teaching the 
. civil law •, but no lectures are given, and the place is considered 
as a sinecure. 

The Society of Advocates in Aberdeen, incorporated by roy- 
al charter, are in number about fifty. Receiving a liberal edu- 
cation, they in general are men of considerable intelHgence, 
some in respectable and independent circumstances, and in the 
habits of associating with the first people of rank in the coun- 



183 

try. In order to ensure as much respectability as possible, a 
young man, before he can be put apprentice to an advocate, 
must previously produce certificates of having received a liberal 
and a classical education. 

The principal buildings near this town bespeak it to be a place 
of great antiquity, amongst which the King's College is its most 
distinguished ornament. The chapel of this sombre but stately 
pile is vaulted with a double cross arch, above which is an impe- 
rial crown in stone, supported by eight stone pillars, upon which 
there are evident marks of decay, and indications of a speedy 
downfall ; besides this, there is a tolerably good library, in which 
there are some curiosities, a common hall, rooms for lectures, 
and a range of houses for the professors. The professors are 
of Humanity or Latin, Greek, three of Philosophy, Oriental 
Languages, Civil Law, Divinity, and Medicine. There are a 
number of bursaries for poor students. The students here, as 
in the New Town, live out of the college, except a few who re- 
side as pupils with the professors. The course of education, I 
was informed, is nearly the same in both colleges, which are to- 
tally distinct and separate from each other, and separately con- 
fer their academical honours. Many efforts have been made, 
for many years past., to unite these colleges into one university 
and one college, " a consummation devoutly to be wished" by 
both ; but a jealous adherence to their mutual interests and pri- 
vileges has hitherto rendered the difficulties of an adjustment 
insurmountable. The King is patron of both colleges, but never 
interferes in the election of their higher officers. 

One of the most shining characters of the age was educated 
at this college, which is deservedly proud of the name of Sir 
James Mackintosh. The leading events in the public life of 
this great man are widely known. Upon a memorable occasion, 
he delivered one of the most profound and elegant speeches ever 
heard from the British bar, in supporting an individual against 
the indignant application of the present ruler of France for re- 
dress, in a British court of justice, against an attack which he 
deemed a libel. The speech excited the admiration of the 
judges before whom it was pronounced, and of the country. 
Connected with the views of Buonaparte, and recommended by 
transcendent eloquence, it was rapidly translated into all the 
languages of Europe, and diffiised the fame of the orator over 
the civiHzed world. The great endowments of his mind, dis- 
played on this and other important occasions, led to rapid pro- 
motion 5 but to a promotion which, though honourable and lu- 



184 

crative to the object, is much to be regretted by the country : 
Sir James Mackintosh was appointed Recorder of Bombay ; and 
his exalted genius, which, in times like the present, would add 
to the wisdom and energy of our councils at home, is brilliantly 
discharging the duties of his judicial situation in a distant re- 
gion. 

The principals and professors of both colleges have the repu- 
tation of eminence in purity of conduct and depth of learning. 
Besides Dr. Beattie and Sir James Mackintosh, the names of 
Reid, Campbell, Gregory, and Gerard, connected with the Phi- 
losophical Society established here, reflect no little additional 
lustre on Aberdeen. 

The King's College in Old Aberdeen is not united to the Ma- 
rischal College in Aberdeen, and in all probability never will be. 
Some years ago a proposition of this kind was made, and 
anxiously wished for, by the professors of the Marischal College ; 
but, as the livings of King's College were better, the professors 
of this latter college were rather indifferent about the measure ; 
and it is believed from this reason the matter dropped. At 
each of these colleges there may be about one hundred and fif- 
ty students, at an average : they wear red gowns ; there is no- 
thing else peculiar in their dress. They reside not in college, 
but in town. At these colleges there are neither many Irish 
nor American youths, though the contrary is generally believed 
in England ; they are principally youths from the neighbouring 
counties and towns. There are pretty frequently young men 
from England who attend the colleges here. From the bursa- 
ries given to students, upon competition, at the opening of each 
session at college, great assistance is rendered to the poor stu- 
dent. The lowest of these bursaries may be about five pounds 
yearly, and the highest about ten or twelve pounds. The year- 
ly session at college continues five months, beginning in Novem- 
ber and ending in March. From the session being so short, 
and living not very high, numbers in Scotland take the benefit 
of a classical education at college. I have before mentioned that 
Hector Boethius was the first president of this college. 

The Senatus Academicus of King's College is as follows : 



1 85 

His Grace the Duke of Gordon, Cliancellor. 
Lord Glenbervie, Rector. — Rod. M'Leod, Principal. 
VV. Jack, Sub-Principal, and Professor of Philosophy. — Patron, the Uni- 
versity. 

H. M'Pherson, Greek. The University. 

vVifliam Ogilvie, Humanity. Ditto. 

Aiex. Dauacy, - Civil Law. Ditto. 

A. Bannerman, Medicine. Ditto. 

W. Jack and R, Scotr, Philosophy. Ditto. 

James Bentley, Oriental Languages. Ditto. 

Gilbert Gerard, Divinity, M. of Synod, &c. 

Wm. Duncan, Natural Philosophy. 

I made an agreeable excursion round the vicinity, which is 
embellished with several gentlemen's seats, and some few but 
very scanty plantations, enlivened by various prospects of the 
sea; in the course of which I visited the venerable Gothic 
bridge said to have been built by Bishop Cheyne, in 1281, over 
the Don, consisting of one large arch, where there is an en- 
chanting view to the west, upon the banks of the river, which 
are here well wooded; also some very extensive cotton-mills ; and 
upon my return to the Old Town I experienced much civility 
from Dr. Ogilvie, who resides in the manse, or parsonage- 
house, belonging to the church, which is composed of two very 
antique spires and one aisle, fragments of a great cathedral, cal- 
led St. Machers. This cathedral is mentioned in history as a 
magnificent pile, and as having had a noble library, which was de- 
stroyed in 1560. To relieve the sombre character of ecclesias- 
tical description, neither my reader nor the Doctor will be of- 
fended at my relating the following whimsical occurrence which 
befel him as a traveller, which afforded me a smile worth having 
in some of my solitary Caledonian rambles. The attachment 
which the Doctor has to the study of astronomy induced him 
some years since to cross over to Denmark, for the purpose of 
personally paying his respects to a celebrated professor of his 
favourite science at Copenhagen. Unfortunately he arrived at 
a time when a considerable ferment prevailed in the public 
mind, in consequence of our having taken and detained one of 
their ships of war, for what cause I do not remember : the 
professor largely partook of the public anger ; and as it is natu- 
ral to identify a foreigner with his country, as soon as the Doc- 
tor entered the room, the former went up to him, and, forgetful 
of the compliment of such a visit, and thinking only of the 
outrage conceived to have been offered to the dignity of Den- 
mark, exclaimed, " Sir, I am glad to see vou ; but. Sir, how 

Aa 



18'6 

dare you to take one of our ships ?" Upon which the Doctor, 
with equal coolness and good humour, drily replied, " Sir do 
not be offended with me j upon my honour /never took a ship 
in my life." The answer had the intended effect ; the professor 
laughed at and apologized for the length to which his patriotic 
ardour had carried him, and treated his worthy guest with all 
the attention due to him during his stay in the Danish capital. 



CHAPTER XVII. 

Aberdeenshire birds — Aberdeenshire Forestry-— S lanes -Castle— its extra- 
ordinary situatioji—the late earl of Err ol — the Bullers of Buchan—— 
Peterhead—effect of first seeing a tree — Banff- — Duff-House — the earl 
of Fife — Cullen — -fine marble — Finlater -House — Gordon-Castle— 'El- 
gin— ^anecdotes of Scottish peasants— ~the cathedral— -rural economy. 

UPON quitting Aberdeen, I slept at a hamlet, distant 
about sixteen miles. The Scotch in general reckon the distance, 
in posting, by the English mile ; but sometimes they confound 
the English with the Scottish mile, to the no little vexation of 
the English traveller. A Scotch mile is fifteen hundred geo- 
metrical paces, an English mile twelve hundred. The inn was 
a comfortable one ; and, for supper, a branded fowl, as it is 
called, from its being broiled on the gridiron, was introduced. 
Here, and in other parts of Scotland, I found that, upon the 
arrival of a guest, when the larder afforded nothing else, it was 
common to seize upon the first lackless fowl that came withia 
the reach of the cook, which was instantly put to death, and 
speedily served up in the way I have mentioned. The ride to 
this place was flat and extremely dreary. In many parts nature 
appeared worn to the bone, the rocks rising through the thin 
surface of the earth. No trees waved their ample branches in 
the breeze \ and the song of the bird was not heard. Many 
pfarts of Aberdeenshire reminded me of Russian Finland, ex- 
cept that it wanted its rude masses of rock, which in that coun- 
try every where line the road. It has been whimsically said, 



187 

' that in Aberdeenshire the birds are accustomed to build their 
nests upon the ground, so great is the scarcity of hedges and 
trees. 

The contrast between the barren face of the country and the 
polished state of society very strongly presents itself to the ob- 
servation. A young artist from Aberdeenshire went to London, 
to advance his fortunes, and applied to be an assistant scene- 
painter at one of the theatres : upon being examined as to his 
qualifications, particularly with regard to trees, he observed, " I 
can paint a rural scene, but know nothing about your forestry." 
Notwithstanding these remarks, which arise from what -I saw, I 
am informed that in some parts of Aberdeenshire there are 
thriving plantations, and that industry and entei-prise are do- 
ing all within their power to mitigate the severity of nature. 

In making our way to Slanes Castle, the curricle of a friend 
of mine, who accompanied me to Peterhead, sustained many a 
severe shock, and threatened us with frequent oterthrow. 
The cross road to this singular spot ' is only fit for liorse-travel- 
ling. Very little, I was informed, remains of the ancient Cas- 
tle of Slanes, it having been demolished by King James VI. in 
the Earl of Huntley's rebellion in 1594. 

My astonishment increased as I approached the more modern 
fabric. Upon a wide waste, without verdure and without a tree, 
the turrets of the castle rose before us. Upon alighting to view- 
its front towards the sea, it presented the extraordinary appear- 
ance of a large solid mansion resting upon a rock, lashed by the 
tempestuous ocean that divides Scotland, from Norway. With- 
in, I found a very comfortable house, having a square court, 
and a gallery leading to the rooms on each side ; the drawing- 
room looks immediately upon the sea, which in stormy weather 
covers its windows with spray, and wanted nothing but the mo- 
tion of the waves to make me conceive that I was looking from 
the cabin- windows of a large man of war. Who will not be 
surprised to hear that such a chosen scene of gloomy grandeur 
and magnificent desolation was the hereditary residence of a fa- 
mily at once distinguished for their rank and refinement of man- 
ners .'' It is the seat of the Earl of Errol, who, by the articles 
of the Union, as well as by an act of parliament abolishing the 
heritable jurisdiction in Scotland, is the hereditary Lord High 
Constable of ^Scotland. In the room I have been describing is a 
fine and very handsome portrait of the late Earl, in his parlia- 
mentary robes, by Sir Joshua Reynolds.. Dr. Beattie thus feel- 
ingly and elegantly delineates the character of this amiable no- 



1.88 

hleman, to whom he was much hidebted for many marked ci- 
vilities, in a letter which he wrote to Mrs. Montagu, upon the 
subject of his Lordship's death : — " Lord Errol's death, of which 
you must have heard, is a great loss to this country, and matter 
of unspeakable regret to his friends. I owed h'.m much ■, but, 
independently of all considerations of gratitude, I had a sincere 
liking and very great esteem for him. In his manners he v;as 
wonderfully agreeable •, a most affectionate and attentive parents 
husband, and brother ; elegant in his economy, and perhaps ex- 
pensive, yet exact and methodical. He exerted his influence, 
as a man of rank and a magistrate, in doing good to all the 
neighbourhood ; and it" has often been mentioned, to his honour, 
that no main ever administered an oath with a more pious and 
commanding solemnity than he; he was regular in his attend- 
ance upon public worship, and exemplary in the performance 
of it. In a word, he was adored by his servants, a blessing to 
his tenants, ^nd the darling of the whole country. His stature 
was six feet four inches, and his proportions most exact. His 
countenance and deportment exhibited such a mixture of the 
sublime and the graceful as 1 have never seen united in any 
other man. He often put me in mind of an ancient hero ; and 
I remember Dr. Samuel Johnson was positive that he resem- 
bled Homer's character of Sarpedon." At the coronation of his 
present Majesty, this Lord Errol officiated as Lord High Con- 
stable of Scotland. The library is a very comfortable apartment 
and well supplied. The murmur of the waves without seemed 
auspicious to study and meditation. I should much like to be; 
imder the roof of Slanes Castle 

*' When the storms aloft arise, when the north lifts the wavcs on high." 

OssiAN. 

The road to Peterhead, by the way of the Duller, or Boiler, 
of Buchan, distant from the castle about two miles, was repre- 
sented to be so bad, that I mounted a led horse, and my friend 
went round by the main road. 

The BuUer is very near to a little romantic hamlet of fisher- 
men, and resembles from the top of the rock on which we 
stood, and which forms its walls, a vast well, opening at the 
bottom, through a large caverned passage, into the sea, which 
in stormy weather rushes in through this aperture, and, striking 
against the opposite side, rises to a prodigious height, conside- 
rably above the top, sometimes throwing up large stones in liz 



18d 

vag.e : in this state of violence its foam resembles water boiling 
over, which I apprehend is the origin of the name of this 
gloomy and awful chasm. Part of the top of the rock is so nar- 
row, that I Vi^as obliged to crawl to it upon my hands and knees 
with great care, to prevent falling from the precipice, which 
threatened instant destruction to me on either side ; yet I was 
assured, by a gentleman of acknowledged veracity, that some 
years since, when the passage was not broader, a man rode over 
it on a sheltie: the great caution of a horse is well known, it 
may therefore be perfectly correct. 

Along this shore there are many other singular caverns, and 
it is much the fashion with the frequenters of Peterhead to make 
water-parties to explore them. On this (the eastern) coast the 
natives are distinguishable by having high cheek-bones and red 
hair. 

The ride from the BuUer to Peterhead partook of the same 
stony sterile nakedness before adverted to, with the addition of 
worse roads. The elevated appearance of Peterhead, rising up- 
on a peninsula, embraced by the ocean, would be very agreeable 
if trees formed a part of the prospect. This town is situated on 
the most easterly promontory of Scotland, within three hundred 
miles of the Naze of Norway, and the peninsula on which it 
stands is united to the country on the north-west by an isthmus 
only eight hundred yards broad. It contains about three thou- 
sand inhabitants j the houses are neat, and the churches and 
town-houses handsome ; the harbour is a small bason formed out 
of the solid rock, and protected by a battery ; it carries on a 
coasting trade, and a fishery amongst the Hebrides. Before the 
war it also carried on a considerable commerce with the ports in 
the Baltic. The place is celebrated for a chalybeate spring, of 
the nature of the waters of Tunbridge Wells. This spring is 
called the Wine Well, from the water sparkling in the glass 
like Champaigne. According to the analysis of its water, pub- 
lished by Dr. Laing, he discovered that twelve pounds weight 
avoirdupois of water contained the following mineralizers : — 

Muriate of iron - - - 3o|: Grains. 

Carbonate of iron - - 3i 

Muriate of lime : - " 7 

Siliceous earth - - - "a 

Sulphate of lime - - a 

Ditto of Soda _ „ - . 13J 

Muriate of ditto - . - - . yi 

Carbonic acid gas - . - _ 83|Cul>ic Inches- 



190 

The iron contained in this water renders it a fine tonic. The 
baths of this place are admirably constructed, and do great 
credit to the ingenious proprietor, who is the contriver, and a 
very singular good-humoured character. They consist of open 
and covered, cold and warm, shower-baths ; projecting vapour, 
Avarm water, medicated, and warm air-baths. There is also an 
assembly-room, rather a shabby one, and an ordinary for the 
visiters at the principal hoteL Health or amusement, I am told, 
generally attracts in the summer a considerable number of the 
fashionables of Scotland ; when I was there, although in the 
season, the company was slender, and the place altogether very 
dull j as dull as Brighton would be without the splendour of its 
society. The presence oi the Duchess of Gordon has, as may 
be easily imagined by all who have the honour of knowing her 
Grace, a considerable influence upon the place : her rank, wit, 
and urbanity, never fail to attract a large circle. 

Formerly Peterhead was merely a petty fishing-town ; it now 
carries on considerable manufactures and some commerce : in 
.1764 its population was two thousand four hundred and twen- 
ty, which increased in ITQ* to four thousand one hundred. 
The sacrament was administering whilst I was there, which 
brought a great number of persons together ; and the church 
was uncommonly thronged during all the time of its adminis- 
tration. 

Good chaises are to be had from this place to Inverness. The 
road from Peterhead to Old Deer, eleven miles, and thence to 
New Bythe, twelve miles more, is very dreary and sterile. My 
eye hunted for trees as a sportsman would for game, but I do 
not recollect that one gladdened my sight all the way. Nature 
every where seemed to have played the part of a severe step- 
dame. I again regretted that Johnson should have passed 
through such a gloomy region, which he has so powerfully 
described : and which, as he has omitted to mention the many 
parts of Scotland clothed with wood and verdure, has, by many 
been mistaken for the general character of Scottish scenery; a 
great and an unpleasant error. Some ladies of Aberdeenshire\ 
assured me that, upon their quitting this county, the sight of a 
Gtately tree produced an agreeable effect upon their minds, 
which was perfectly novel- 

From New Bythe to Banff I traversed over a country almost 
as dismal as the preceding stages, and upon a road infinitely 
worse. The coast from Peterhead to Banff is extremely danger- 
ous, being exposed to the fury of the north-easterly winds which 



191 

have washed away the incumbent soil, and left numerous sharp 
naked rocks. The approach to Banff, over a bridge of seven 
' arches, is singular and picturesque. The town, which is very 
ancient, is the capital of Banffshire. It is considerable in size, 
has some handsome streets, and is very pleasantly and romanti- 
cally situated on the side of a steep declivity, at the mouth of 
the river Doveran. The view which most pleased me was from 
the western part of Banff, looking towards Macduff, a consi- 
derable village opposite ; a very elegant church is the principal 
object amongst the public buildings ; there are several excellent 
seminaries for education : and manufactories of cotton stockings 
and thread are carried on to a considerable extent. The inha- 
bitants have a very respectable appearance j and an air of great 
gentility cannot fail to attract the notice of the traveller in va- 
rious parts of the town, which, in size and consequence, ranks 
next to Aberdeen amongst the towns in the north of Scotland. 
Owing to continually-shifting sand-banks at the mouth of the 
river, the harbour is rendered unsafe. Since Dr. Johnson vi- 
sited this town it must have been much improved. It was here, 
the reader may remember, that he so bitterly lamented the in- 
commodiousness of the Scottish windows, which were pushed 
up and down in grooves unaided by weights and pullies, and 
the total ignorance of the value of ventilating human habita- 
tions. I met with no such grievances : to be sure in the hovel 
of the peasant or very poor mechanic, the windows are station- 
ary, but then the doors are frequently opened. Banff derives 
not a little of its beauty from its close neighbourhood to the 
Park of Duff-house, the seat of the Earl of Fife, into which 
the principal street opens. Upon my arrival at the mansion, 
with a letter of introduction to the noble owner, I had to re- 
gret that his lordship had just left it for one of his shooting- 
boxes. The house is a noble quadrangular structure, of five 
stories, from the design of Mr, Adam ; the battlements are rich- 
ly decorated with urns and statutes, but the effect of the whole 
is sadly injured by the wings not having been as yet erected. 
"Within are some very handsome apartments, and a great pro- 
fusion of paintings, amongst which are some family portraits, 
by Sir Joshua Reynolds, the colours of which, very fortunately 
still look fresh. There is also one, by the same admirable mas- 
ter, of the Duchess of Gordon ; there are several by Kneller 
and Jaaiieson, and a few by Vandyke, Rubens, Sir Peter Le- 
]y, 8cc. Upon the frame of a portrait of the Due D'Orleans, 



192 

the Earl has inscribed the following memorial of his detestation 
of his character : — 

«' The most ruthless monster that ever polluted the earth was executed at 
Paris, by a Decree of the National Convention, November 6, 1793.", 

The house stands in a very extensive and beautiful park, through 
which the Deveron flows. This park and the surrounding 
plantations measure nearly twenty miles in circumference ; it 
possesses some very fine timber ; and the pleasure-grounds^ 
containing walks of great extent and variety, are laid out with 
a refined taste. Contrasted with the sterile and gloomy scenes 
which I had left behind, the charms of this place appeared with 
peculiar attraction , and I wandered through its winding ave- 
nues with something of the delight which a man exhibits upon 
quitting the deck of a ship, after a long voyage, to rove at large 
upon a verdant lawn. 

The present Earl of Fife was educated by Dr. Guthrie, the 
well-known and ingenious author of the Geographical Gram- 
mar. His Lordship has exhibited a spirit of enterprise in plan- 
tations, which it is to be hoped will become exemplary in that 
part of Scotland. He has planted no less than fourteen thou- 
sand acres of wood, some of the trees of which are thirteen 
feet in circumference, and others one hundred feet high ; in- 
deed, although so near to the sea, there are in these planta- 
tions some of the finest forest-trees I ever saw. The esta- 
blishment of his Lordship is very splendid. Besides Duff-house 
he is the owner of Delgaty- castle, Rothesnay-house, Innes- 
house, and Fife-house : the last is his Lordship's residence in 
London. 

Other travellers may perhaps be told, as I was, that there are 
some capital pictures to be seen at the Castle of Banff, which, 
by the by, has neither the resemblance nor the presumed an- 
tiquity of such a building, being a plain modern house, belong- 
ing to the Earl of Finlater, and principally allotted for the 
Dowager of the family ; but, upon inquiry, I was informed they 
had been removed to Cullen. 

In my way to Cullen, distant about fifteen miles, I passed 
through a fine corn country, and had occasional views of the 
North Seath. 

Along the coast of Banff fine marble is found in such abun- 
dance, that it is related that when Louis XIV. was building Ver- 
sailles, he wished to have used it in that building, but declined. 



193 

from hearing that It was so abundant. Along the coast are 
caught considerable quantities of various sorts of fish, and it is 
sometimes visited by large shoals of herrings. The exports from 
this country of dried and salted fish, such as cod, ling, had- 
dock, and salmon, are also extensive and lucrative. The manu- 
factures are linen-yarn, white and coloured threads, thread and 
worsted stockings, and leather shoes. 

At Cullen I found, what is always welcome to a traveller, an 
admirable inn, or rather hotel, where every reasonable com- 
fort and accommodation are to be obtained without exaction, 
and with civility. The town, in which a considerable manu- 
factory of linen and damask is carried on, is mean and dirty. 
There is nothing to detain the traveller here but Finlater-house, 
the hereditary seat of the Arl of Finlater, which is more an- 
cient, than stately, and farless worthy of notice than the park 
and ground in which it stands, which, particularly as viewed 
from the bridge near the house, afford a grand and roman- 
tic prospect. The noble owner has been for many years abroad, 
principally, as I was informed, at Dresden. With the refined 
taste which he has, no doubt, imbibed during so long a resi- 
dence in a capital, which, as well as its environs, is much cele- 
brated for architectural elegance, and with the ample fortune 
which he enjoys, his Lordship might erect a building here 
worthy of his residence, a task to which he is strongly invited 
by the beauty and capability of situation. In the old mansion, 
which is very dreary, there are a few paintings, the best, ap- 
parently by French masters. The servant very gravely informed 
me that one of the shew-rooms, in which the only object worth 
looking at was a blazing fire, was only used by the Lord's men 
of business, meaning his agents and factors. 

Lord Finlater has long pursued a very wise measure for en- 
couraging a spij-it of planting amongst his tenants, which cannot 
be too strongly recommended ; he gives them, at the termination 
of their lease, every third tree, or its value in money, which 
they have planted during the lease's existence. In the mills and 
distilleries of this county, swine are reared in considerable num- 
bers, which are chiefly purchased by the Aberdeen butchers for 
exportation, owingto thedislike v/hich the peasantry in the High- 
lands have in general to pork and bacon, which in some parts 
are held in utter aversion. 

In proceeding to Fochabers, distant about eleven miles, I was 
iJiuch pleased to observe the respectable appearance of the pea- 

B b 



194 

sants' cottages, which were generally built of stone and clajj 
pointed with lime, neatly thatched, and having a small window 
or two. Potatoes are here much cultivated. 

For a considerable distance before I reached Fochabers, the 
vast plantations of the Duke of Gordon spread themselves be- 
fore the view ; and the name of his Grace was mentioned with 
all the homage due to that of a great Chieftain or a little Prince. 
The town stands at the western extremity of Banffshire, on the 
river Spey, and is neat, thriving and handsome. I was as un- 
fortunate at Gordon-castle as at DuiF-house : I had a letter of 
introduction to his Grace, and he had also just left the castle 
before my arrival, with a shooting party, for another part of the 
Highlands, The grand entrance to the park is very near the 
town. The road to the house wind^hrough a rich green lawn, 
skirted with shrubs and trees to the rastle, which stands on a low 
flat, and is surrounded with beautiful plantations j it exhibits a 
prodigious front of five hundred and sixty-eight feet from east 
to west, and has the appearance of a modern structure. The 
tower of the ancient castle is still preserved in the southern 
front, above which it rises. The hall is small, in proportion 'to 
the external magnificence of this pile, and contains a few beau- 
tiful busts and statues. Angelica KaufFman appears to have been 
the favourite artist of the family ; several copies by her from 
Dominichino, Titian, and Guerchino, embellish some of the 
apartments, which are handsome. There is a beautiful portrait 
of the Duchess, by Sir Joshua Reynolds. A more frank and 
lovely face I never beheld. The beautiful conceits of Cowley 
were present to my mind as I gazed upon it :— - 

" Love in her sunny eyes does basking play, 
Love walks the pleasant mazes of her hairj 
Love does on both her lips for ever stray, 

And sows and reaps a thousand kisses there." 

There is another portrait of the Duke, by Raeburn, as I was 
informed. This part of Scotland is eminently indebted to his 
Grace for the just and spirited attention which he has paid to 
planting. The view from the leads of the castle is very exten- 
sive and beautiful, and the eye is refreshed and gladdened by the 
appearance of a great park and an interminable forest, in which 
I was told, there were vast numbers of mountain deer, though J. 
saw none. 



195 

The road to Elgin, distant about ten miles, is bad and sandy. 
The soil of Morayshire is for the most part a sandy loam, in 
some places sandy gravel, and considerable tracts of fertile 
clay. This town is the capital of Morayshire, and is situated in 
a plain, on the banks of the small river Lossiej it is a very an- 
cient, and is said to derive its name from a Norwegian Earl of 
Orkney, who conquered this and some of the adjoining country 
in 927, and whose name was Helgy. The church and the gaol 
are old and ugly buildings, and both encumber and disfigure the 
principal street, in the middle of which they stand. 

There are scarcely any manufactures, and very little trade, in 
the town, which in consequence displays the appearance both of 
poverty and idleness. The celebrated ruins of its cathedral, to 
which I hastened as soon as I had finished a rather late dinner at 
a dirty inn, are the only attractions to a stranger. In my way 
to the spot a Ciceroni followed me with great assiduity, and at 
last begged to shew me the cathedral, the history of which, he 
knew better than any one in Elgin : I accordingly asked hini 
when it was erected? Answer — « I cannot exactly say, but it 
was a long time since." — " To what religious order did it be- 
long ?" — I never heard of any. — " When did it fall into de- 
cline ?" — « That I do not ken." After such specimens of his 
knowledge I dismissed the poor creature with a douceur, who 
seemed to be more prompted by the penury that reigned around, 
than by any passion for antiquity, in thus offering me his ser- 
vices. I should be doing great injustice to the people of this 
part of Scotland if I were to represent this vagabond as a spe- 
cimen of the rest of the lower orders. In a field near 
the town I heard two men, very meanly clad, one of whom 
held a book in his hand, disputing upon the construction of a 
passage in Macbeth. Here it is with pleasure I mention the two 
following anecdotes, to shew how genei'ally intellectual the pea- 
santry of Scotland are. A lady of rank said, that, seeing a 
shepherd of her father's lying upon the side of a hill reading, 
curiosity led her to ask him what he was reading, when she 
found it was a volume of the Spectator. 

At another time, being desirous to witness the piety of the 
Scottish peasantry, she went into a peasant's cottage on a Sun- 
day evening, and requested to be permitted to attend their fa- 
mily devotion, upon which the peasant placed a bit of carpet 
before her to kneel upon ; and, when all the family were knelt, 
he commenced an extemporaneous prayer, full of sound sense 
and fervid devotion. 



196 

I proceeded to the ruins of the cathedral alone, which are 
very fine, and highly interesting. The comni^encement of i^s 
Fall arose from an order of the Privy Council of Scotland ip 
1568 for stripping off its lead, an act in which the cathedral 1 
described at Aberdeen was also a participator, for the purpose qf 
being sold in Holland, to raise money for paying the troops. 
The ship which contained the sacrilegious spoil sunk soon after 
it had left the port of Aberdeen, not without many a shrewd 
comment from the superstitious, who distinctly beheld the 
avenging retribution of Heaven in the event. The architect 
and the antiquary may perhaps be gratified by the following de- 
scription of this beautiful and venerable pile, in its perfect 
form, by Shaw : — « This church, when entire, was a building 
of Gothic architecture inferior to few m Europe ; it stood due 
east and west, in the form of a Jerusalem cross, ornamented 
with five towers, whereof two parallel stood on the west side, 
one in the middle, and twoon the east end. Betwixt the two 
towers at the west end was the great porch, or entrance. This 
gate is a concave arch, twenty-four feet broad in base, and 
twenty-four in height, terminating in a sharp angle. On each 
side of the doors, in the sweep of the arch, are eight fluted pi- 
lasters, six feet and a half high, adorned with a chapiter, from 
■which arose sixteen pilasters, which meet in the key of the arch. 
There were jporticoes oh each side of the church eastward, for 
the traverse, or cross, which were eighteen feet broad without 
the walls. To yield sufficient light to a building so large, besides 
the great windows in the porticoes, and a row of attic windows 
in the walls, each six' feet high above the porticoes, there was 
in the west gable, above the gate, a' window, in form of an 
acute-angled arch, nineteen feet broad in the base, and twenty- 
seven in height ; and in the east gable, between the turrets, a 
row of fine parallel windows, each two feet broad and ten high. 
Above these are five more, each seven feet ; and over all a cir- 
cular window, near ten feet in diameter. In the heart of the 
Wall of the church^ and leading to all the upper windows, there 
is a chant] el or Walk round the whole building. 

" The grand gate, the windows, the pillars, the projecting 
table," the pedestals, cordons, &c. are adorned with foliage, 
grapes, and other carvings. Let us, after describing the body 
of the church, take a view of the chapter-house, commonly calU 
ed " the Apprentices' Aisle," a curious piece of architecture, 
standing on the north side of the church, and communicating 
^ith^the choir by the vaulted vestry. The house is an exact 



197 

octagon, thirty-four feet high, and the diagonal breadth with- 
in the walls thirty-seven feet. It is arched and vaulted at the 
top, and the whole arched roof supported by one pillar in the 
centre of the house. Arched pillars from every angle termi- 
nate in the grand pillar. This pillar, nine feet in circumference, 
is crusted over with sixteen pilasters, or small pillars, alternately 
round and fluted, and twenty-four feet high, adorned with a cha- 
piter, from which arise sixteen round pillars, that spread along 
the roof, and join at the top with the pillars (five in number) 
rising from every side of the octolateral figure. There is a large 
window on every side of seven, and the eighth side communi- 
cates with the choir. In the north wall of this chapter-house 
there are five stalls cut, by way of niches, for the bishop (or the 
dean, in the bishop's absence) and the dignified clergy to sit in. 
The middle stall of the bishop or dean is larger, and is raised a 
step higher, than the other four. They were all lined with 
wainscot. The length of this cathedral is two hundred and six- 
ty-four feet, and its breadth thirty-five feet; the length of the 
traverse is one hundred and fourteen ; the height of the west 
tower, not including the spire, is eighty-four feet ; the height of 
the spire in the centre was one hundred and ninety-eight feet, 
and the height of the eastern turrets sixty feet. The height of 
the side-walls is thirty-six feet. The spires of the two west 
towers are fallen, but the stone-work remains. The great tow- 
er is gone. The two eastern turrets, being winding staircases, 
and vaulted at top, are entire. The walls of the choir and the 
chapter-house are tolerably entire, but the walls of the nave and 
traverse are mostly fallen." 

The family mausoleum of the noble house of Gordon is 
within the walls of this cathedral. Although history informs us 
that the ecclesiastical buildings in the north were not assailed 
with the ferocity which the Reformers directed against similar 
structures in the south, yet the cause before stated, and the un- 
sparing hand of Time, have rendered the Cathedral of Elgin 
much less entire than the Abbey of Melrose, and even a greater 
sufferer than that of Jedburgh. 

The food of the farmers' servants is very simple in this, as 
well as in all the northern counties in Scotland. On week- 
days their ordinary breakfast is porridge made of oatmeal, ate 
warm with milk or small beer ; their dinner a kind of flum- 
mery, called sowens, which I saw for the first time used in the 
Lunatic Asylum at Aberdeen, made from the bran of oatmeal, 
and generally eaten with milk ; and for supper greens or cab- 



19« 

bages, either cut small or mashed, and afterwards boiled, with 
an addition of oatmeal and salt ; at each meal they use bread 
made of oats, here, and peasmeal. Broth made of pot-barley, 
with greens and roots, and a little butcher's meat, " solemnize 
the Lord's." 



CHAPTER XVIII. 

The Dana- — road to Forres — Forres — the Weird Sisters— Shatik^s naggy 
■"—peasants' civility — Nairn — peasants^ humanity— —Fort St. George—" 
Cidloden — the battle — Prince Charles— an honourable rogue — the three 
robbers— anecdotes of the Pretender— royal magnanimity — -family anec- 
dotes of Flora Macdonald—ln'verness-the prison— —the academy-^na- 
tional delicacy. 

IN this county (Murrayshire) are to be seen many mo- 
numents of the Danes, who are mentioned by the Scottish his- 
torians to have landed in Moray about 1008, when Malcolm the 
Second marched against them, and was defeated near Forres ; 
after which the invaders brought over their families, and re- 
tained their conquests for some time, until, by several signal 
victories obtained over them at Luncarty, Barrie, and Mortlich, 
they were obliged to quit the country. Buchannan mentions, 
that Moray, from its pleasantness, and the profit arising from 
its fruit-trees, surpassess all the other counties in Scotland. The 
best orchards are often found about deserted castles and the 
mouldering fragments of religious houses. However fruit 
might be cultivated here in the time of Buchannan, I believe it 
to be now much neglected, for in the capital of the county I 
could procure none. 

Upon leaving Elgin I rambled over ground which the Muse 
of Shakespeare has rendered so celebrated. Just before I 
quitted the inn, I made my landlord smile, by asking, in the 
language of Macbeth, " How far is't cali'd to Forres ?" (my next 
stage, which I found was about twelve miles.) He wanted much 
to detain me, to hear him explain, with an apparently copious- 



199 

knowledge of dramatic geography, the various places in Moray- 
shire in which all the wonderful events so sublimely described 
by Shakespeare occurred to Macbeth. The road to Forres is 
extremely dull and uninteresting, and I should have felt little 
objection to have had its monotony relieved even by some of 
the weird sisterhood, however withered and wild in their attire. 
The town stands on a gently-rising ground, near the bay of 
Findhorn -, it is very ancient, gloomy, and dirty. Poverty 
seemed to hang over it as an evil spirit. In the ^street I saw- 
several qualified figures, who induced me to think that the race 
of Macbeth's witches was not quite extinguished j and I was 
glad to take my departure for Nairn, distant about eleven miles ; 
on my way to which I passed very near Dyke, in the parish of 
which, conjecture has placed the scene which leads to the catas- 
trophe of Shakespeare's tragedy. 

It is thought that Hardmoor, on the western side of the park 
of Brodie-house, was the spot where Macbeth and Banquo were 
first saluted by the weird sisters — 

" —Each at once her ciioppy iinger laying 
Upon her skinny lip.'' 

Holinshed says, " It fortuned as Macbeth and Banquo journeyed 
towards Fores, where the King (Duncan J then lay, they went 
sporting by the way, without other company, save only them- 
selves, when suddenly, in the midst of a laund, there met them 
three women, in strange and v/ild apparel, resembling creatures 
of the elder world." 

At Forres the only chaise in the place was engaged, and it was 
with difficulty I procured a horse, and that appeared to be near- 
ly half starved ; at first I had every reason to apprehend that I 
should be obliged to ride what the Scotch call " Shanks' Nag- 
gy," that is, proceed on foot. 

This equipment enabled me to observe the natural kindness 
and civility of the lower people, which with pleasure I record. 
A few miles before I reached Nairn I came to a gloomy heath, 
from which two roads diverged, and I knew not which to take : 
the night was advancing, I was alone, and all was silent. In this 
dilemma I rode back to a little black town, which I had passed, 
consisting of some miserable turf hovels, the inhabitants of 
which had all retired to rest. After knocking at the door of 
one of them for some time, a tall athletic peasant, whose slum- 
bers appeared to have been as sound as health and innocence 



•200 

generally unite to render them, addressed me with the usual sa- 
lutation, « What's u wull ?" Upon my telling him my situation, 
instead of giving me any directions, he came out, and, with no 
other covering than a shirt, insisted upon walking by the side of 
my horse for a mile, till he had seen me out of the possibility of 
mistaking my road, which he did with the most perfect good 
humour, and at parting refused to accept a douceur for such ex- 
traordinary attention : indeed he appeared to be hurt that I 
should have offered it. 

As I approached Nairn the country seemed very much to im- 
prove in picturesque beauty, as it was displayed under a clear 
star-light and brilliant moon, which faintly unfolded the shores^ 
of Cromarty, whilst the waves of the Frith of Murray quietly 
murmured along the sands upon which I moved, and Fancy 
seemed to hear 

" Airy tongues, that syllable men's names. 
On sands and shores/' 

After crossing a bridge over the river Nairn, I entered the capi- 
tal of Nairnshire, which is small, but tolerably neat, and agree- 
ably situated on a rising bank ; and met with every comfortable 
accommodation which an excellent inn could afford me. With 
the exception of an agreeable and picturesque prospect, there is 
nothing to detain the traveller at Nairn. Upon the Castle-hill, 
on the south side of the town, once stood a royal fort, of which 
the Thaq^es of Cawdor were hereditary constables. 

In the small county of Nairn there are no manufactures ; the 
people are generally poor : many of them in the summer and 
harvest visit the southern districts, and maintain themselves at 
home in the winter with the money which they receive from 
their summer labours. The Frith of Murray abounds with 
small herrings, which, with potatoes, constitute the principal 
food of the lower classes. 

Having been informed, but, as it proved, erroneously, that I 
should see Macbeth's Castle at Inverness, instead of proceeding 
to Calder-castle, from which the sanguinary usurper derived his 
second title, and some of the ancient parts of which are still re- 
maining, I went direct to Fort George. Nairn may be con- 
sidered as the eastern boundary of the Scottish language : upon 
my quitting it I found the Erse every where spoken. The male 
children wear philibegs, and the women and children go without 
shoes and stockings j the transition was not a little striking. 



^01 

The day was stormy, and I thought myself fortunate in pro- 
curing a neat chaise and a good pair of horses, and a driver 
who spoke^ very intelligible Scotch, and, as I was told, good 
Gaelic. The views of the sea, the mouth of Cromarty, the 
shores, and the adjoining mountains, losing their heads in the 
clouds, were fine and frequent objects. A short distance frorai 
Fort George I passed a fine Highland town, the characteristic 
architecture of which I shall hereafter describe. Curiosity led 
me to stop the carriage, and enter one of the huts, all of which 
%vere very rude and simple, and at a little distance, resembled 
so many peat or turf stacks : yet under this lowly shed I saw a 
spectacle which would have done honour to a palace. In one 
corner, upon a bed of heath, two girls, about sixteen and seven- 
teen years old,, were lying, extremely unwell, attended by a 
handsome-looking woman, the owner of the hut, who was ad- 
ministering a little broth to one of them. She told my driver, 
m Erse, that they were sisters, who, in going to Banff on their 
way from Caithness about a week before, had both been seized 
with a fevet*; that they asked for a little food and a night's 
lodging of her, and that she .had done all in her power for 
them, and was happy to see that they were recovering under hei- 
care. As the man translated this artless display of feeling and 
humanity, I observed the fine eyes of this excellent woman 
brighten with pleasure. When I offered my mite^ she declined 
it ; but, upon my explaining, through my interpreter, that I 
wished to leave it for her patients, she received it with many 
thanks, mingled with much courtesy. 

The outer works of Fort George, rising from the sandy level 
m which it stands, almost prevent that celebrated fortification 
from being very visible until the entrance through its palHsades 
is passed. This fortress has a high reputation for the admirable 
skill which has been displayed in its construction, which, as I be- 
held it with an unmiiiury eye, I cannst technically explain. 
The grand pjrade is in front, where there is a line of "handsome 
houses forming the residence of the Governor and Fort-Major j 
and behmd is a large square, and some streets, containing the 
barracks, chapel, magazines, and workshops, constructed to ac- 
commodate about two thousand ir.en. It was built in 1746, to 
support the British authority in the Highlands. It stands on a 
barren sandy spo-. and co'um-nds the passage of the Frith 
3gamst vessels [.rocee:lhig ihr.c iv.y lo Inverness. The viev/ 
trom the ramparts is very grand and very melancholy ; the 
-rerman Ocean rolls with violence throurh the narrow strait. 



C 



c 



202 

which almost separates the great and lesser Friths, and the eye 
wanders in gloom amongst the bleak and wild mountains of the 
upper Highlands, rising in sullen majesty from the opposite 
shore. 

Here I was again disappointed. I had a letter of introduction 
to the Governor, but he was gone to Inverness ; however, in 
his absence I experienced every attention and politeness from 
one of the officers. In this fortification the Irish rebel, O'Con- 
nor, and his associates, were confined : they could scarcely be 
more effectually separated from the power of doing mischief. 
Fort George may be considered as a town in itself j there is 
none in its neighbourhood. The traveller will find a good inn 
in part of the barracks. Vast quantities of salmon (amongst 
which the seals make great destruction) are caught near Fort 
George ; sometimes the salmon have been seen to leap out of 
the sea upon the shore, to escape their enemy. The seal much 
resembles a dog with its ears cut close ; it has a thick snout, a 
wide mouth, and its eyes sunk within its head, which it holds 
high above the water : it is uncommonly quick-sighted and sus- 
ceptible of approaching danger, to observe and elude which, it is 
constantly rolling from side to side ; it is of course very difficult 
to destroy : a seal yields a great quantity of oil, and its skin 
makes a fine sort of leather. 

The road to Inverness winds along the shores of the lesser 
Murray Frith, which, bounded by mountains in almost every 
direction, resembles a vast lake. I quitted my chaise, and vi- 
sited the celebrated Moor of CuUoden ; there is nothing worth 
this trouble, unless it be more forcibly to recollect the memorable 
incidents of the 16th of April, 1746, which decided the hopes 
of the expatriated family of the Stuarts. The battle of that 
day, so distinguished in the history of the times, would, in the 
present era of military carnage, be considered as little more thaR 
an affair of posts. On the evening preceding the engagement, 
the young Prince Charles Edward slept at CuUoden -house, ad- 
joining the field of battle, the residence of the ancient family 
of Forbes. Distraction and insubordination had made great in- 
roads in the rebel army. On the day before mentioned, the 
royal army, commanded by the Duke of Cumberland, com- 
menced their march from Nairn, in five lines, of three batta- 
lions each, led by Major-General Huske on the left. Lord Sem- 
pell on the right, and Brigadier Mordaunt in the centre, flank- 
ed by the cavalry, commanded by Generals Hawley and Bland, 
who at the same time covered the cannon on the right and left. 



203 

In this order they marched about eight miles, when a detach- 
ment of Kingston's Horse, and of the Highlanders, having ad- 
vanced before the rest of the army, discovered the van of the 
rebels, commanded by the young Pretender ; both armies form- 
ed in order of battle : the royal army amounted to eight 
thousand eight hundred and eleven men, the rebel to eight 
thousand three hundred and fifty, so that there was little dis- 
parity. About two in the afternoon the rebels began to can- 
nonade the King's army, but their artillery, consisting only of a 
few four-pounders, being ill-served, did little execution, whilst 
the fire from their enemies was very effective, and produced 
great disorder. Severely annoyed by this fire, the front line of 
the rebels, amounting to about five hundred of the clans, char- 
ged the right of the royal army with their accustomed impetuosi- 
ty, in order to draw the troops forward. One regiment was 
disordered by the weight of this column, but two battalions ad- 
vancing from the second line arrested their career, upon which 
they turned their whole force upon the left, when they attempt- 
ed to flank the front line ; this movement was however defeated 
by the advancing of Wolfe's regiment, supported by cannons 
which opened upon them with cartridge-shot. General Hawr 
ley, with some Highlanders, had opened a passage through, 
some stone walls to the right for the horse, which advanced on 
that side, whilst the horse on the King's right wheeled off 
ort their right, dispersed their body of reserve, and met in the 
centre of their front line in their rear, when, being repulsed in 
the front, and great numbers cut off, the rebels fell into the 
greatest confusion. A dreadful carnage was made by the caval- 
ry on their backs ; however, some part of the foot still preserve^ 
their order ; but the Kingston Horse from the reserve gallopped 
up briskly, and did terrible execution amongst the fugitives. A 
total defeat instantly followed, with the loss of two thousand 
five hundred killeid, wounded, and taken prisoners, on the part 
of the rebels, and of two hundred only on the side of the royal 
army. The young Pretender had his horse shot under him 
during the engagement, and after the battle retired to the house 
of a factor of Lord Lovat, about ten miles firom Inverness, where 
he rested that night : the scene of desolation which followed was 
horrible, and can be justified only by the severe policy of every 
where impressing the disaffected with terror and dismay. 

The Highlanders were buried by their friends the next day, 
who dug holes for them on the moor, where several green ele- 
vated spots are still to be seen, which, upon being opened, arc 



204 

found to contain human bones, and the country-people ofteii ' 
iind small cannon and musket-balls. The Genius of the place 
seems to whisper — " Grey stones and heaped' up earth shall 
mark me to future times. When the hunter shall sit by the 
znound, and produce his food at noon, ' Som-e warrior rests 
here,' he will say." 

All the perilous adventures of Charles II. after the battle of 
Worcester were renev/ed in the fugitive history of the young 
Pretender after the battle of CuUoden. For some days he wan- 
dered in the country. Sometimes, without food or attendant, 
lie sought refuge in caves and cottages. Sometimes he lay in a 
forest, with one or two companions of his distress, continually 
pursued by the troops of the conqueror, who ojEFered a reward 
of 30,000/. for taking him, dead Or alive. In the course of his 
wanderings he had occasion to trust his life to the fidelity of 
above fifty individuals, who, to their eternal honour, refused to 
enrich themselves by a violation of the rights of hospitality. 

An extraordinary instance of incorruptible fidelity occurred 
in the course of his miserable rambles. A poor cottager, of the 
name of M'Jan, who was upon principle hostile to his cause, 
and who, on account of a severe season, was, with his family, 
in a state of starvation, received the wretched wanderer, and at 
the hazard of his life committed depredations to procure him 
sustenance, when an immense reward lay within his reach, and 
■with powerful temptation invited him to surrender up his 
guest. ' '■■:■■ 

The fate of this generous being was as singular as his conduce 
to the Prince. In a season of great scarcity, he stole a cow, to 
save his family from dying of hunger, for which he was tried, 
convicted, and executed. A little before his execution he took 
off his bonnet, and thanked God he had never betrayed a trust, 
never injured the poor, arid never refused a share of what he 
had to the stranger and to the needy. The King, when he 
heard of the fate of this poor but noble fellow, is said magna- 
nimously to have declared, that, had he known his circumstances 
in proper time, he would have raised him above the cruel ne- 
cessity of stealing a cow for his subsistence. 

Another instance of the integrity of the Highland character 
is related. One day, after the helpless wanderer had walked 
from morning till night without having tasted food, he ventured 
to enter a house, the owner of which he knew was, like the last 
man, hostile to his views. As he entered he addressed the mas- 
ter of the house h: the following manner : <' The son of your 



205 

King comes to beg a little bread and a few clothes. I know 
your present attachment to my adversaries ; but I believe you 
have sufficient honour not to abuse rny confidence, or take ad- 
vantage of my distressed situation. Take these rags, that have 
for some time been my only covering ; you may probably re- 
store them to me one day, when I shall be seated on the throne 
of my ancestors." This affecting appeal awakened pity in the 
breast of the owner of the house, who afforded him all the as- 
sistance in his power, and never divulged his secret. 

A few other anecdotes, connected with the fate of the un- 
happy adventurer, not generally known, and whiqh reflect un- 
fading honour upon the incorruptible integrity of the parties con- 
cerned, may not be uninteresting. After this battle the gallant 
young Captain Mackenzie wandered with a few other adherents 
of the Prince, whom he remarkably resembled in face and per- 
son. In every part of this country, parties of royalists . were 
distributed, for the purpose of seizing upon the Pretender : one 
day the Captain and his little band were discovered and pur- 
sued, some of whom fled, and others threw down their arms 
and implored for mercy 5 but upon observing that his pursuers 
seemed very anxious to take him, he concluded that they mis- 
took liim for the Prince ; he accordingly, to confirm them in 
their mistake, defended himself with all the fury of desperation j 
upon which, to" secure the enormous reward offered for the 
head of the Pretender, they shot him ; when he exclaimed, 
as he expired, " Villains, you have shot your Prince i" 
thinking by this gallant stratagem to abate the ardour of 
their pursuit after the royal fugitive. His head was im- 
mediately severed from his shoulders, and brought into 
the camp by those who slew him with great exultation, when 
they were mortified by being informed by a soldier, who knew 
the gallant Captain, that it was the head of Mackenzie, instead 
of the Pretender. 

The Pretender at this time found an asylum vsrith three rob- 
bers, who were brothers, and who felt no disgrace in living by 
rapine, like a singular person of corresponding character 
before mentioned, but would have thought it an indelible 
stain to have betrayed the being, who, in the hour of mise- 
ry and desertion, sought shelter under their protection. 
One of these brothers used to venture every day into the Iki- 
glish camp, disguised as a fisherman, where he procured wheat- 
en bread, and had even address to get the newspapers from the 
pfEicers' servants j and also abundance of gingerbread, of which. 



206 

the unhappy Prince was very fond. In these perilous visits he 
used constantly to hear proclaimed at the drum-head, in Erse 
and English, a reward of 30,000/. for the head of the adventu- 
rer. 

At length the Prince was safely conducted on board of a 
boat, and endeavoured to make for the Western Isles. When 
they left the main land they were afraid of steering direct for 
Sky ; and in consequence of having heard that there was a ship 
of war at anchor, and that armed boats were stationed at every 
landing place, they were obliged to keep at sea all that day, 
during which they were overtaken by a storm. When the row- 
ers became exhausted the Prince relieved them by turns, and, 
when the storm subsided, sung and amused them by endea- 
vouring to learn Gaelic songs i on this, as on all other occasions, 
displaying a cheerful philosophy, except when he heard an un- 
happy story of any of his unfortunate adherents. In this me- 
lancholy condition their little sea-store was destroyed by the sea- 
water which they shipped. On the following night they ap- 
proached the shores of Rasay j and it being a fine moon-light 
evening, they were seen by the Laird or his brother, who 
warned them from the landing-place to depart, as Rasay, as well 
as Sky, was occupied by the royal forces, and brought them 
some bread, wine and brandy. Compelled to put out again to 
sea, they were the next morning chased by one of the King's 
cutters into South Uist, an island belonging to the Clanronald 
i|imily : in this dire dilemma the Prince escaped by ordering 
the boatmen to turn a point of projecting rock, upon which he 
leaped, and concealed himself in a cave amongst the rocks ; the 
boatmen escaped by pretending not to understand the English 
language, and one of them contrived to inform the lady of the 
place of the Pretender's landing, who, on account of the ab- 
sence of her husband, at first felt extremely embarrassed, in a 
contest between sympathy and duty, what to do. 

From this painful situation she was relieved by Miss Flora 
Macdonald, who happened to be her guest, and undertook the 
protection of the wanderer. She accordingly, the better to escape 
the vigilant observation of the soldiers, upon the ebbing of the 
tide wandered to the beach with her maid, apparently in search 
of shells ; and as the attention of her maid was engaged at some 
distance from her, she stole into the cave of the Prince with 
some wine and food, and returned without having been ob- 
served. She afterwards conveyed a female dress to him, and 
requested a pass from the commanding officer for herself and an 



207 

Irish maid, called Betty Bourke, whom she said she had bfought 
over for her mother. As this great strapping Irish servant, the 
Prince got ofFwith his fair and youthful protectress to the island 
of Sky, where they arrived on Sunday afternoon. 

They were met by Flora Macdonald's stepfather, Macdonald 
of Kingsburgh, a man of great integrity, who, when informed 
of the secret by his daughter, resolved to render her distin- 
guished charge every assistance in his power. The particulars 
that followed, till the Prince quitted Sky, are given in Mr. 
Boswell's very entertaining journal of a Tour to the Hebrides, 
page 180, to which I refer my reader. Upon quitting Sky, 
Prince Charles entered Loch Nevish, to the westvirard of Loch 
Ackeig. Whilst he was secreting himself in the glens of this 
district, four himdred men under the command of General 
Campbell, arrived on one side of him, and five hundred more, 
under Captain Scott, on the other, and began to form a circle 
round him. In this desperate situation the Prince sent to Do- 
nald Cameron, of Glenpean, who, under favour of a dark 
night, safely conducted him through a pass strongly guarded by 
soldiers, during which they were obliged to creep upon their 
hands and knees, so close to their enemies that they distinctly 
heard them talk, and saw them walking between them and their 
fires ; after this their dangers thickened, for they had to pass 
through a chain of little camps, twenty- seven in number, through 
which, at night, Donald Cameron, by way of experiment, pas- 
sed alone, and returned in safety to the Prince, whom he con- 
ducted through the line without interruption. Before they set 
out Donald said to the young fugitive, " Oh ! Sir, my nose is 
yuicking," that is, itching, " which is a sign to me that we have 
great risks and dangers to go through." When they had ac- 
complished this perilous enterprise, the Prince said to his faith- 
ful guide, " Well, my brave Donald, how does your nose now?'* 
" It is better now," replied he, *' but it still quicks a little." — 
The share which Flora Macdonald and her father had in the es- 
cape of the Prince led to their apprehension, and they were 
conveyed as prisoners.to London. Her heroic and noble con- 
duct during her examination excited the surprise and admiration 
even of the Sovereign, and led to her own enlargement and 
that of others. During her stay in London, after her discharge, 
she became an object of great public attention, and persons 
of the highest distinction loaded her with kindnesses and ci- 
vilities, which she received with a very becoming grace and dif- 
fidence. 



208 

The unfortunate Charles, after the most inarvellous escapes^ 
often hemmed round by his pursuers, but still rescued by some 
providential and marvellous interposition, at last received intel- 
ligence that a privateer of St. Maloes, hired by his adherents, 
was arrived in Lochranach, in which he embarked in the most 
wretched attire, consisting of a short thread-bare coat of black 
frize, over which was a common Highland plaid, girt round 
him by a belt, from which hung a pistol and a dagger. He had 
not changed his linen for many weeks, his eyes were hollow, 
his visage wan, and his constitution greatly impaired by famine 
and fatigue. 'To the honour of Ireland, two faithful natives of 
that country, Sullivan and Sheridan, who had participated with 
him in his calamities, Cameron of Lockiel, his brother, and a 
few other adherents to his cause, accompanied him on board, 
when they sat sail for France, and reached Roseau, near Mor- 
laix, in Bretagne, after having been chased by two English 
ships of war. I have been informed by good authority, that his 
present Majesty, with characteristic magnanimity, allows from 
his private purse a pension of 2,000/. per annum to the per- 
sonage known by tlie name of the Countesse D'Albany, widow 
of the unfortunate Charles Stuart, grandson of King James 
the Second, who has been dead some years. She is a Princess 
of the house of Holberg, and lived at Brussels, where she was 
married. She is allied to many noble families in this country. 
This lady had a dower assigned to her out of the old French 
funds, which were destroyed in the Revolution, and she was 
entirely supported by her brother-in-law, the Cardinal of 
York, upon whose death she became absolutely destitute. It 
is well known that his Majesty also allowed an annuity of 
6,000/. to the Cardinal, who was left unprovided for by the 
French Revolution, which annuity he enjoyed to the day of his 
death. 

I know of no Caledonian lady who has obtained more cele- 
brity than Flora Macdonald. She was the daughter of Mae- 
donald of Milton, in Uist, a cadet of the family of Macdonald 
of Clanronald ; she married Major Macdonald, of Kingsburgh, 

A report has gone abroad that this romantic friend of the 
young Pretender is still alive, and that she enjoys a pension upon 
the Irish establishment ; this report is unfounded, as I am favour 
ed by the assurance of my much-respected friend, Mr. Hector 
Macdonald Buchannan, who is well acquainted with the family, 
that she died in the year 1790 in the isle of Sky, and that he 
inserted her death in the Annual Register, by the desire of her 



209 

son, Major Macdonald, since also dead. She has another son 
still living, Major or Colonel John Macdonald, of the Honour- 
able East-India Company's service, who married Miss Cham- 
bt'rs, daughter of Sir Robert Chambers, a brave and active of- 
iicer, and who was Lieutenant-Colonel in the regiment of 
Tfolunteers raised and commanded by the late Right Honourable 
William Pitt. The person mistaken in Ireland for Flora Mac- 
donald MFlorance MacdonneU^ whose name stands in the pension 
list of officers' widows in Ireland, and who resides at Ratagan, 
in the parish of Glomshiel, in the county of Ross. Boswell 
describes the celebrated Flora to have been " a little woman 
of a genteel appearance, and uncommonly mild and well 
bred." 

After a very agreeable ride, I reached Inverness, the capital 
of the Highlands, and the seat of Highland elegance and re- 
finement, and soon experienced all the comforts of an hotel 
which would be respected in the nrost fashionable parts of Lon- 
don ; and there are other good inns. This town is a port, with 
twenty creeks dependant upon it, part on the Murray Frith, to 
the east, and part on the north of the town, extending as far as 
the south border of the county of Caithness. The salmon-fish- 
eries here and at Fort George are let to London fishmongers. 
The town, which consists of two principal streets, crossing each 
other, stands upon the eastern side of the beautiful river Ness, 
having considerable suburbs on the other side, which are united 
by an ancient bridge of seven arches. 

The view of the town from the suburbs over this bridge, 
looking a little to the northward, is said much to resemble Basle 
in Switzerland. Both Gaelic and English are promiscuously 
spoken here, but the ear of a stranger is almost immediately 
sensible of the pleasing softness with which the English lan- 
guage is here pronounced ; it has neither the accent of the High- 
land nor the Lowland English language, but possesses a sweet- 
ness and purity peculiarly its own. It has been well compared 
to very pure English, spoken with a soft foreign tone. The 
reasons assigned for the purity with which English is here spo- 
ken, both with respect to pronunciation and grammar, are, that 
not being the n:iother tongue it is learnt more by book, as 
Greek and Latin, are learnt, than by conversation, that there 
have been garrisons of English soldiers in the neighbourhood 
ever since the time of Cromwell, and that, in consequence of 
there being little comparative communication between these 
"onnties ^rxd-. the Lov/land';, rhe corrupt nhrases and pronunci" 

D d 



310 

aiion of the latter are but little heard. It is very Ivhimsical to 
find, in this, as well as other Highland towns on the western 
coast, that frequently the inhabitants speak Gaelic on one side 
of the street, and Englisii on the other. There is a great ap- 
pearance of industry and opulence, urbanity and refinement, 
amongst the inhabitants. The females are remarked for their 
beauty. There is an elegant suite of assembly-rooms ; and in 
the winter, I am informed, the town is extremely gay. 

The houses are lofty, and the streets are tolerably clean. One 
of the principal buildings is the court-house ; and the tolbooth, 
which is a very handsome modern building, surmounted by an 
elegant spire. The prison, which I inspected, is airy and strong, 
but destitute of a court-yard. I was surprised to see one pri- 
soner, and only one, whose legs were fastened close together 
with irons, such as are used to bolt the hands of a deserter, so 
that he could not move without great difliculty : upon inquiring 
of the gaoler if he had attempted to escape, I was answered in 
the negative ; and there was another prisoner, (but he was a 
rich rogue), cofhmitted for more serious charges, who was not 
fettered at all. The gaoler informed me that the former had 
been thus severely ironed for some months. This was the only 
prisoner I saw in irons in Scotland. The room for the debtors 
is airy, and the prison allowance liberal. The court-room, to 
which there is a passage from the grated gallery of the prison, 
is spacious and handsome. 

I ascended the hill where the Castle of Macbeth stood, 
the walls of which were standing when Dr. Johnson visited In- 
verness, but of which to my disappointment, there were now 
no traces ; I was rewarded, however, for my trouble, by a 
beautiful prospect of the town, rich corn-fields, the Frith, 
and many a cloud-capp'd mountain. In this castle it is believed 
that INIacbeth murdered Duncan : the bed on which this foul 
dtQQ^ was perpetrated is, I was informed, to be seen at Calder- 
castle. 

The academy established here in 1790 may be considered as 
partaking very much of the character and consequence of an 
university, and is much and justly celebrated. The building 
containing the schools is more extensive than ornamental. La- 
tin, Greek, French, mathematics, writing, arithmetic, drawing 
and geography, are taught here with great success, under the 
tuition of nine masters, who have small salaries, and chiefly de- 
pend on the fees of their different classes, by which, as be- 
fore, upon a somewhat similar occasion, has been observed. 



211 

their interest is placed on the side of their duty. The number 
of youths at this academy was two hundred. The academy 
spring sessions or terms commence the 2d of January, and close 
the 28th of May. The autumnal sessions commence the 15th 
of July, and close the 20th of December. Besides this school 
for boys there is a seminary, as I was informed, for young 
ladies, who are sent to it from remote parts of the High- 
lands. 

Misfortune has always strong claims upon the feelings of a 
Highlander, and I could not help being highly gratified by a 
little rebuke which I received in this town from one whose loy- 
alty and devotion to the august family now upon the throne are 
exemplary : upon designating the royal exile by the usual name 
of the Pretender — « Do not call him the Pretender," said he, 
<^« h€ was the Prince Charles." 



CHAPTER XIX. 



Policy of Education — its effects in the Highlands— -its general importance — 
singular effects of its ad'vantages— Scottish missionaries on the mountains 
of Caucasus— ^a comparison— Scottish and Irish peasants contrasted-— 
the miners' library— schools for education—the parish schools— the 
Highland schools— the charity schools'-r-pri'vate schools — remarks— ~ 
anecdote . 

POLITICIANS have widely differed with regard to the 
wisdom of enlightening the poor of a country by education. 
Upon such a subject men of plain understandings would natural- 
ly wonder that any variance of opinion could arise. They 
would conceive that he who prefers darkness to light, who 
thinks that the common people are most likely to advance the 
ends of their creation, that they would be more loyal, more 
brave, and more virtuous, by continuing in a state of ignorance 
and stupidity, would, by a parity of reasoning, insist that the 
blind were the most likely to move with certainty, and the crip- 
pled with vigour. But a distempered prejudice still maintains 



2ii^ 

that to illumine the head is to extinguish the heart *, that ii 
the humble are taught reading, writing, and a little useful arith- 
metic, they will soon fancy themselves under the influence of 
inspiration, and feel as if they had been intended for some high 
destiny; that they will desert or disgrace the station of life al- 
lotted to them by Providence, and perish upon the dunghill a;; 
vagabonds, or by the gallows as forgers. The poor of Scotland 
seem to have decided this important question; they can read, 
and yet are loyal ; they can write, and yet are honest ; 
they can calculate, and yet are virtuous. By the wise and salu- 
tary diffusion of education, particularly in parts which appear to 
be impenetrable to civilization, upon the sides of frightful 
mountains, or in dismal glens seldom visited by the rays of 
Heaven, the astonished and admiring traveller beholds a spec- 
tacle at once gratifying and affecting. In a hut of branches and 
sods, when the hour of labour is over, the young, enlightened 
by those institutions which do honour to human nature, are 
seen instructing those who are younger, or consoling the last 
hours of venerable and sightless age by reading aloud the Scrip- 
tures, or isome pious book, printejd in their own language ; yet 
in this sorry dwelling the benighted traveller may rest in safety 
amid the howling storm ; not a hand will be extended to him 
but in kindness, not a voice will be raised but to charm hh 
ear with the song of other times, or, if he undel^tands the Ian 
guage, to store his mind with the wild, romantic, and beautiful 
effusions of the Gaehc Muse. 

It is equally singular and true that one can scarcely meet 
■with a poor man in any part of Scotland, who is not possessed 
of the knowledge particularized in the commencement of this 
chapter, and to this he frequently adds a little acquaintance with 
Latin. The results of this system of education, which I shall 
briefly explain, are of the most beneficent nature. If the poor 
remain at home, their deportment is sedate, upright, and order- 
ly; if they attempt their fortunes in other countries, they bear 
with them a superior understanding, and a knowledge sharpened 
by poverty, which enables them to do honour to any situation, 
and frequently to improve those arts, studies, and pursuits by 
■which the power, prosperity, and character of a country, are ac 
once extended and secured. 

The emigration of the humbler classes of the Scotch is a sub- 
ject of frequent remark. Poor, but cultivated, they quit their 
native country in the pursuit of fortune in other chmes not more 



2iS . 

v;ongeniai to merit, but niore irj want of talent, and better capa- 
ble of rewarding it. How happy is it that we live in an age and 
under a constitution which are propitious to genius, under which 
humility of origin presents no insurmountable barrier to the 
advancement of any one* v/ho, to intellect, unites integrity, in» 
dustry, and prudence. 

In the fair pursuit of fortune they spread themselves in the 
most remote regions of the earth. The celebrated Field -Mar- 
shal Keith, who, on account of his having joined King James's 
party in the old rebellion, when he was about eighteen or nine- 
teen years old, at the instigation of his mother, after the battle 
of SherifF-muir was obliged to escape to France, and who after- 
wards had ^ great share in the revolution which raised Elizabeth 
the daughter of Peter the Great, to the throne of all the Rus- 
sias, and was afterwards the chief counsellor and companion of 
the King of Prussia, is said to have related the following anec- 
dote, illustrative of the erratic disposition of the Scotch : — 
Seing sent upon an important mission to a Turkish officer of 
iigh rank, he was received with all the honours and solemnities 
nsual upon such occasions in the east, and which so much en- 
cumber and procrastinate the issue of matters of business. 
The Turk, to his surprise, seemed to feel as he did, a wish to 
terminate their negotiation as speedily as possible : and upon his 
'earning that the Marshal spoke French, a language with which 
'0 too was acquainted, he proposed dismissing their respective 
ttendants, and concluding the objects of their interview in pri- 
vacy, which the Marshal acceded to. A§ soon as the retinues 
>f both these, personages had retired, the Turk, to the utter as= 
onishment of the Marshal, walked up to him, and in broad 
Scotch said, "Weel, man, when was ye last at Aberdeen?" 
On an explanation, which immediately followed this extraordi- 
nary interrogatory, it appeared that this eastern chief was no 
other than the • son of a Scottish peasant, who remembered to 
have seen Marshal Keith in Aberdeenshire, and who, in the 
pursuit of ameliorating his condition, had wandered into Tur- 
key, where by his good conduct he had raised himself to Asiatic 
honours. 

The same enterprising spirit has led them to cojonize where 
one might naturally suppose only the most powerful induce- 
ments of rapid accumulation of riches could have attracted 
them. A number of Scotchmen have for the last four years 
bedn settled on the mountains of Caucasus, to whom his Impe- 
rial Majesty of Hussia has granted, with that noble liberality 



214 

which always characterises his mind,* a charter of extraordi. 
nary rights and privileges, by which, in order to induce them 
to extend their trade and manufactures in a district thinly peo- 
pled, and bordering on the territories of many uncivilized tribes 
of Mahometans and Heathens, they are placed on the same 
footing with the Evangelical Society of Sarepta. His Majesty se- 
cures to them the perpetual possession of ample allotments of 
land, as near as possible to the village which they have founded 
and they are exempted from a variety of imposts. The free ex- 
ercise of their religion is conjSrmed to them ; and the adminis- 
tration of their internal affairs is for ever vested in a chief ma- 
gistrate to be chosen amongst themselves, who is authorized to 
admit as settlers amongst them every description of Mahometans 
and Heathens, being freemen, and taking the oath of allegiance 
to his Imperial Majesty. 

Why has the Irish peasantry been so frequently rendared the 
object of an angry policy ? a peasantry derived from the same 
stock as the Scotch, speaking the same language, whose customs 
and manners were originally the same, and whose natural ta- 
lents are, to an extraordinary degree, strong and vivacious ? 
why, but for the want of the same benign spiri<t of instruction ? 
Were any one who had visited Ireland to make their ameliora- 
tion the subject of his pen, I am persuaded that the con- 
clusion of all his reasoning would be, education without pro- 
selytism. 

Let us compare, by the assistance of a venerable author, the 
present with the past condition of the Scottish peasantry. In 
the year 1698, that illustrious Caledonian patriot, Andrew Flet- 
cher, of Saltoun, who so nobly declared that he would readily 
lose his life to save his country, and would not do a base thing 
to serve it, tells us, *' There are at this day in Scotland two 
hundred thousand people begging from door to door; and 
though the number of them be perhaps double to what it was 

• I have thus spoken of the Emperor Alexander, because Ithink, in jus- 
tice, I cannot speakotherwise of him. With my countrymen I know that 
at present he is not a favourite, but they forget his former noble conduct 
v.'hen he was a free agent, and attribute to his inclination the humiliating 
scenes in which he has recently acted so conspicuous a part, at a period 
when it is sufficient only to mention that a French General rules at Peters- 
burgh, and that French agents have complete dominion in all the Russian 
ports of the Baltic, to prove that, for want of military strength, he is no 
longer an independent Sovereign. This is neither just nor liberal towards, 
ap unfortunate Prince. 



215 

formerly, by reason of this present great distress, (a famine then 
prevailed), yet in all times there have been about one hundred 
thousand of these vagabonds, who have lived without any re- 
gard or subjection either to the laws of the land or even those, 
of God and Nature ; fathers incestuously accompanying with 
their own daughters, the son with the mother,? and the brother 
with the sister. No magistrate ever could discover that they 
had been baptized, or in what way one in a hundred went out 
of the world. They are frequently guilty of robbery, and some- 
times of murder. In years of plenty many thousands of them 
meet together in the mountains, there they feast and riot for 
many days ; and at country weddings, markets, burials, and on 
other public occasions, they are to be seen, both men and wo- 
men, perpetually drunk, cursing, blaspheming, and fighting 
together." * 

These dreadful evils were not mowed down by the sword, 
they were not exterminated by ferocious penal laws ; they were 
put to the blush by the mild and salutary precepts of mental il- 
lumination, the light of which they could not encounter, and 
withdrew forever from its presence. This system of education 
gives to the manner of a low Scotchman an air of sedateness, 
acuteness, and consideration, which I have never witnessed in 
the same class in any other country. A low Irishman frequently 
shapes his answer by a quick and often erroneous anticipation, 
before the question propounded is half finished. A Scotchman 
hears you without interruption, and, after a pause of reflection, 
conveys a firm, modest, and generally a luminous answer. So 
strong is the thirst for knowledge amongst the lower orders in 
Scotland, that small farmers and petty tradesmen are known to 
form themselves into literary societies ; and it is related, upon 
authority, that the workmen in the lead mines of the Earl of 
Hopetoun, at Lead-hills, have a common library supported by 
contribution, containing several thousand volumes. These peot 
pie work only six hours, and therefore have time to gratify this 
extraordinary passion for literature. 

The philanthropic and political reader will, I am sure, be 
gratified with a brief account of the enlightened system by 
which these admirable traits in the Scottish character are efi'ect- 
ed. Parish schools were erected by an Act of Parliament of 
Scotland, passed in 1646, which enacted that a school should 
be established in every parish in Scotland, for the express pur- 
pose of educating the poor ; it obliges the heritors and minis- 



216 

ters of each parish to meet and assess the several heritors witli 
the requisite sum for building a schoolhouse, and to elect a 
schoolmaster, and modify a salary for him in all time to come. 
The salary is ordered not to be under one hundred nor above 
two hundred merks, that is, not under 51. lis \\d. nor abov^ 
11/. 2s. 3d. and the assessment is to be laid on the land in the 
iame proportion as it is rated for the support of the clergy, and 
as it regulates the payment of the land-tax* But in case the he- 
ritors of any parish, or the majority of them, shall fail to dis- 
charge this duty, then the persons forming what is called the 
Committee of Supply of the County (consisting of the principal 
landholders) or any five of them, are authorised by the statute 
to impose the assessment instead of them, on the representation 
of the presbytery in which the parish is situated. To secure 
the choice of a proper teacher, the right of election on the part 
of the heritors, by a statute passed in 1693, chap. 22, is made 
subject to the review and control of the presbytery of the dis- 
trict, who have a right to examine the person proposed as to his 
qualifications as a teacher, and as to his proper deportment in 
office, when settled in it This election on the part of the 
heritors is therefore only a presentment of a person for the ap- 
probation of the presbytery. The statute of 1646 was repeal- 
ed on the accession of Charles II. in 1660, on account of its 
having been passed during the Commonwealth, and lay dor- 
mant until after the Revolution, when it was re-enacted by the 
Scottish parliament in the same form, and remains in force to 
this hour. All this was excellent ; but the income of the 
schoolmaster, fixed by the provisions of the act, and arising 
also from the compensations of his scholars, was by much too 
small. This has been in part remedied : the teachers have 
now a salary of 15/. per annum, and a portion of land, va- 
rying from three to more acres, according to the quality of 
the land, a small house to reside in, and a school-room built 
and kept in repair by the society. These teachers are Pres- 
byterians, and under the superintendance of the general as- 
sembly. 

The church establishment of Scotland Is favourable to its 
school establishments j the constant residence of the clergy upon 
their benefices places the conduct of the schoolmaster and the 
application of his scholars under the fostering protection of his 
superintendence, and the teacher himself is often appointed to a 
vacant benefice. 



217 

Instruction in these schools is deeply tinged with religion. 
The Catechism of the Assembly, the Proverbs of Solomon, and 
the New and Old Testament, either in English or in Gaelic, 
impart to the mind oP the rustic student a knowledge of the sa- 
cred writings, conformably to the doctrines of Calvin. To pre- 
iierve their flock, and not to enlarge it by proselytism, seems 
to have been the sound wisdom of the Scottish legislators. I am 
assured that proselytism is never attempted. In the country, the 
English language, writing and arithmetic, are taught at the rate 
of six shillings, and Latin at the rate of ten or twelve shillings a 
year. In the towns the prices are higher, but in some places 
lower than the sums mentioned. 

The Highland schools are of more recent institution, and 
arise from the beneficial effects already experienced from the 
parish schools. By the 4th George I. chap. 6, it is enacted, 
" That of the moneys arising from the sale of the Scottish es- 
tates, forfeited in the rebellion of 1715, 2000/. sterling shall be 
converted into a capital stock, the interest of which shall be 
laid out in erecting and maintaining schools in the High- 
lands." 

The charity schools established by the Society for propagating 
Christian Knowledge are, in the next degree, entitled to our 
consideration. This association derived its origin from the pub- 
lic spirit of a few private gentlemen in Edinburgh, who, in the 
beginning of the last century, formed themselves into " A So- 
ciety for the Reformation of Manners," principally in the High- 
lands and Hebrides, on account of their remote situation, their 
total want of schools, the small number of Protestant clergy in 
the country, the immense extent of parishes, the little inter- 
course between them and their ministry (who are separated from 
them by vast mountainous tracts, mountains, arms of the sea, 
and rivers often impassable), by their language (a dialect of the 
ancient Celtic, unintelligible to the inhabitants of the Low coun- 
tries of Scotland), the prevalence of popery in many districts, 
and the influence of clanship. All these circumstances induced 
them to erect and endow schools, provided with well qualified 
teachers, in as many districts of the Highlands, as possible, for 
the instruction of youth in the first principles of religion and 
literature. Their funds were at first small, but private contri- 
butions soon swelled the scanty stream into a noble current j and 
the subscribers were erected into a body corporate by Queen 
Ann, in 1709, under the title they now bear j some time after- 

E^ 



218 

wards they obtained from the crown an enlargement of their 
powers, that they might add to their primary objects the cultiva- 
tion of the most necessary branches of industry ; in consequence 
of which the women in the remote Highlands, who used to be 
employed, as is fi-equently the case in uncivilized countries, in 
the masculine labours of the field, were engaged in sewing, spin- 
ning, knitting stockings, and other occupations more appropriate 
to the sex. 

By liberal contributions, and by the great disinterestedness 
and discretion of all parties concerned, the funds of this society 
are in a flourishing condition, though still unequal to the objects 
of its application, which are continually increasing ; the promo- 
ters of it have however the happiness of reflecting that they af- 
ford every year the elementary branches of education to nearly 
1 6,000 children. The schools of the society are annually visited 
by two ministers of every presbytery within whose bounds they 
are stationed : and at these visitations a report is written and 
transmitted to the society of the number of the scholars, the 
branches they are taught, and of their proficiency ; also of the 
character and conduct of the teacher, and of the nature of the 
accommodations furnished to him, in compliance with the rules 
of the society : and until such report is received at the ofiice of 
the society, the salary of the teacher is not paid. This society 
has caused to be translated the Scriptures both of the Old and 
New Testament, as well as a variety of pious and useful trea- 
tises, into the Gaelic language, and by means of their school- 
masters have circulated them through the Highlands and 
islands. 

The Highlanders, it is well known, are very proud of literary 
distinction ; and their ambition to teach others, after they have 
been taught themselves, is very great. Hence the society have 
upon their lists more candidates than they can appoint. The 
expenses of this noble institution are conducted with the greatest 
economy and integrity. 

The following abstracts of jthe society's establishment for the 
last two years will exhibit its improving condition :— 

For tlie Year ending May i, 1807. Salaries. 

181 Schools on the first Patent - - £z>645 

21 Superannuated Teachers on ditto. - - 300 

100 Schools on the second Patent . - . 537 

4 S\iperaunuated Teachers on ditto - ,: 20" 



219 

14- Missionaries and Catechists - - 529 

6 Gaelic Bursaries • ■ - 90 

327 Amount of the Schemes. £z>^i^ 



For the Year up to May i, 1808. Salaries. 

»88 Schools OH the first Patent - >C^i739 

23 Superannuated Teachers on ditto - - 212 

15 Missionaries and Catcchists - ^ ^ 357 

6 Gaelic Bursaries - - . - 90 

loi Schools on the second Patent - - .536 

4 Superannuated Teachers on ditto - - . 20 

337 £3,95+ 



Besides these established schools, the lo)ji/er classes of people 
in Scotland, where the parishes are large, often combine to- 
gether, and form private schools of their own. So convinced 
are the poor people of Scotland of the advantages of education, 
that they will submit to almost any privation to procure it for 
their children, in doing which they have to encounter the ex- 
pense of clothing and feeding them. At the charity schools no 
fees are paid. The benefits derived from these schools to the 
rural Muse of Scotland are too well known to be enumerated. In 
opposition to Dr. Johnson's remark, that the schools are desert- 
ed in the winter on account of the scarcity of food, it is a well- 
known fact that the schools are much more frequented in that 
season than in summer, when the children of those who are 
fit for, and are required in domestic services are most wanted. 
The winter, moreover, is not penurious of food in the Hebrides, 
as the natives are too careful not to provide for that gloomy 
season of the year. 

I shall close my account of these great intellectual sources 
with the following singular remark made upon thein by a Scotch- 
man : — A lady of rank, who had a Highlander in her service, 
whom she employed as her hair-dresser, one morning as he was, 
adjusting her head, asked him how many traditionary poems 
concerning Fingal still remained amongst his countrymen ; to 
which he replied, " When any stranger entered a Highland cot- 
tage, the first question always was from the family to the guest, 
** Know you any thing of Fingal, or Ossian, pr Oscar ?" If he 
did, he was called upon to recite what he knew ; if he did i;iot,. 
they recited it to him ; and upon the lady asking how they 



220 

could treasure up in their memories so many poems, he said? 
<* Oh, madam ! before we had so many schools^ we had long me- 
mories." 

As another mode of diffusing knowledge in the Highlands, I 
must not omit to mention, that, a short time before I arrived at 
Inverness, a weekly newspaper had been established, with 
every prospect of success, by a very respectable bookseller, 
Mr. John Young, which considering the improvements that 
have been made in the Highlands in agriculture, in external 
and internal commerce, and the general condition of the 
people, is like to be of considerable public advantage, as well 
as a source of private amusement, by opening new communica- 
tions of intelligence. It is rather singular that this should have 
been the first public print in these parts. 



CHAPTER XX. 

iti'verness continued-^herring-fishery'—the Caledonian canal-^^highiand 
> 'workmen-'— national benefits of the canal'— remarks on internal improiJe- 
ment— 'parochial schools— niitrified forts-^-the Gaelic language- — anec- 
dotes of its effects in Asiatic Turkey, 

TO return to Inverness. The population of the town 
consists of about six thousand persons. The infirmary, built by 
subscription, near the town, is a very handsome building, most 
delightfully situated, and does infinite honour as well to the 
humanity as the taste of those under whose auspices it has been 
erected. There are also several other very commendable chari- 
table institutions. Several thriving manufactures, such as wool- 
len, hemp, thread, &c. are carried on, though many of them 
are young ; there is also a foundery. Ships of four hundred 
tons can ride within a mile of the town ; and, at spring tides, 
vessels of half that burden can come up to the quay, close to the 
town. 



221 

Most of the vessels belonging to Inverness convey to London 
the produce of the manufactories, the fish caught in the river 
Ness (which is very considerable), the skins of hares, foxes, 
goats, rabbits, otters, roes, &c. and return with hardware, ha- 
berdashery, and other arricles of use or luxury, which are retail- 
ed by the tradesmen to the town and county. A ship-load of 
juniper-berries used also, annually, some time back to be sent 
to Holland from this place ; the juniper grows in great profu- 
sion upon the neighbouring hills. The herring-fishery upon the 
coast is, of late, rather precarious. The Highlanders are very 
fond of this fish, and hail its first visit, as the Dutch do, with 
jubilee joy. I saw very fine wheat growing in the neighbour- 
hood of the town, a very rare circumstance in the west part of 
the Highlands ; and the v? beaten bread is very good. The 
crops are here mostly more forward than on the western coast, 
owing to the climate and soil being much more favourable than 
in the western Highlands. 

Inverness is likely, in the course of a few years, greatly to 
augment her commercial' character and consequence, from a 
work of Roman magnificence, which, when completed, will be 
a glorious monument of the enterprise and labour of modern 
times. The Caledonian Canal commences very near Inverness, 
which, when finished, will unite the German to the Atlantic 
Ocean. To many of my readers the details of this stupen- 
dous undertaking, so important to the nation at large, will not 
be very interesting ; but I cannot help entering into them a 
little, for the sake of others, who may wish to know some of 
its particulars. The act of Parliament for effecting this inland 
navigation from the eastern to the western sea, was passed on 
the 22dof July, 1803. By a line of Lochs and rivers Nature 
seemed to have invited the skill and enterprise of man to the 
undertaking, and, upon investigation, every part intended to be 
occupied by the canal, was found, with little abatement, to be 
very favourable to the purpose. It has been considered as pro- 
bable, that, in more early ages of the world, the immense 
chasm (almost two-thirds of the length of which is still occu- 
pied by water) has been nearly open from sea to sea ; and that 
the land which now separates the lochs has been formed from 
the decay of the adjoining mountains, wasted by time, and 
brought down by torrents from rain. As the discussion of the 
Bill completely unfolded all its objects, they were sufficiently 
understood by the Commissioners, who held their first meeting 
oa the 30th of the same month, and who set to work with a 



222 

promptitude not in general very conspicuous in the discharge or 
public duty in England. This canal opens into Loch Beuly, 
part of the Murray Frith, and, near Clachnacary, ascends by a 
cluster of four locks. It was found necessary to alter the course 
of the Ness, by throwing up an embankment of about a thou- 
sand yards in length, and twelve feet in height, above the line 
of ordinary low water in the river. 

Near Inverness the soil is so loose, being composed of gravel 
and sand, that, in pits sunk for trial, the water rose and fell 
with the tide, and considerable apprehension was entertained 
that a proper foundation for the locks, and other necessary ma- 
sonry, would not have been found 5 but, at length, one place 
was discovered of sufficient solidity to answer the purpose. The 
canal then proceeds through Loch Doughfour, a little loch, 
which, like some inconsiderable person in society, who is fre- 
quently very troublesome, presents the greatest difficulty to the 
navigation on account of its shallowness, and the quantities of 
gravel which are carried with great velocity into, and through 
this tiny lake : the navigation then continues to Loch Ness, a 
distance of about seven miles, the advantageous length and form 
of which, no doubt, determined the undertaking. It is a noble 
piece of water, twenty-three miles and three quarters long, and 
in breadth varies from a mile and a quarter to three quarters of 
a mile, and is nearly straight from one end to the other. Its 
shores are bold and commanding, and on each side rise lofty, 
rocky, and rugged mountains, irregularly cut into deep gullies, 
with frightful precipices. The depth of its water, which has 
erroneously been said to be unfathomable is from one hundred 
and six to one hundred and twenty-nine fathoms (a fathom is 
six feet) in the middle parts, to eighty-five, seventy-five, or 
less, near its end, to the east. The sides, except the bays, are 
very steep, the rise being a foot in height, to a foot and a half 
in breadth. This excessive steepness had suggested the pro- 
priety of laying down mooring-chains with buoys in the bays, 
for the use of merchant-vessels intending to anchor in the 
loch, instead of letting go their anchors in so great a depth of 
water, as otherwise they would be obliged to do. The con- 
venience of such a project will be very manifest when it is con- 
sidered that a merchant-ship carries no more hands than are bare- 
ly sufiicient to weigh the anchor, so that, all hands being em- 
ployed upon that service, the ship is left to drift to leeward, 
from the time the anchor quits its hold of the ground, until it is 
brought up to the bows of the vessel ; for this reason, in Loch 



223 

Ness, where the water is so deep, and so little room for drifting, 
a ship riding upon the lee side, with a wind blowing at all across 
the loch, would drift upon the shore before she could get her 
anchor up and make sail. Besides these advantages from 
mooring-chains with buoys, the expense that would be saved in 
anchors and cables would be considerable. 

It has been ascertained that the bottom of Loch Ness is soft 
mud, of a dark brownish colour when wet, apparently consisting 
of the lighter parts of the soil of the surrounding mountains, 
which innumerable torrents have for ages washed down their 
sides ; and, independently of the mooring-chains, it will afford 
good anchoring-ground in all parts. From a journal of the 
winds and weather, kept from the 1st of May, 1806, to the 1st 
of May, 1807, the irregularity of the wind in this mountainous 
region is proved, and will be satisfactory to those virho appre- 
hended, as has been generally believed, that so great a valley, 
rectilinear throughout, would almost constantly draw the wind 
into a current, traversing it from end to end, a circumstance 
which would have been highly unfavourable to the navigation 
of the lakes. By this journal it appears that the wind is not 
only irregular, but that it is frequently different during the 
same day at Corpach, at Fort Augustus, and at Clachnacary. 

The people in these parts, accustomed only to see the agita- 
tion of boats and small vessels in stormy weather upon this lake, 
are generally of opinion that the squalls and unsteadiness of the 
winds, which occasionally prevail among the lofty mountains 
which border this and the other lakes, would be dangerous to 
the navigation of large vessels, than which nothing can be more 
erroneous. In proof of the error of the opinion, a small vessel, 
of fourteen tuns burden, was launched on Loch Ness, for the 
purpose of carrying timber purchased in Glenmorrison and 
near Port Clare, and this small trader, although undecked, 
usually completes two voyages a week, including loading 
and discharging, without interruption ; though, being built 
for the stowage of timber, she does not make progress to 
windward so well as a sharper-built vessel, although, in this con- 
stant employ, this vessel must very frequently beat to windward 
the whole length of the lake. Of course, if an imperfect ves- 
sel can navigate the lake against the wind in safety, larger and 
decked vessels can have nothing to apprehend from its squalls 
and waves. 

At the western end of this loch stands Fort Augustus, where 
the foundation of the lock near this fort, and on Loch Ness, is 



■224 

twenty-four feet below the level of the summer surface of the 
lake, which, varying in its height ten feet, renders it necessary 
to cut a new channel for the river through the rock on the 
north side, in order to get at a solid foundation of rock, the soil 
being too open to warrant the cutting to so great a depth. The 
canal from Fort Augustus will ascend about five miles to Loch 
Oich, which is about three miles in length, and one quarter 
broad, and is, in some parts, twenty-six fathoms in depth, and 
in others only five. This loch will be the summit level of the 
canal. It is intended to reduce this loch to a greater regularity 
of depth. From the western end of this loch the canal is con- 
tinued for about two miles, when it falls into Loch Lochy, a 
sheet of water ten miles and a half long, and its breadth, at the 
. east end, near three quarters of a mile j fx-om thence it increases, 
until, in the Bay of Arkeg, it spreads to about a mile and a quar- 
ter, and is from seventy-six to sevehty-four fathoms deep in 
many parts. On one side of this loch are high ridges of rocks 
and ground, descending abruptly into the lake. At the east 
end of this lake is a complete little harbour, in which there are 
from ten to five fathoms water, admirably adapted for giving 
every protection to the canal, and safe and commodious for 
ships to lie in. Mooring-chains, with buoys, will be as ne- 
cessary here as in Loch Ness. 

It is intended to cut a new course for the river Lochy, along 
the bottom of the bank on the south side, where the canal will 
occupy the deserted part of the present bed of the river, and to 
raise the lake twelve feet above its present level, by which, on 
account of the general steepness of its shores^ very little land, 
except at the east end, will be overflowed ; and as there is some 
deep cutting at the summit, it is proposed to remove back the 
soil now on the surface of the meadow at the east end of the 
lock, to bring the ground which is to be excavated at the sum- 
mit to elevate the low ground at the east end, and, when this is 
raised to the proper height, to cover it again with the soil which 
had been removed back, with the addition of that which cover- 
ed the land to be occupied by the canal near the summit. 

The canal will then proceed by Corpach to Loch Eil, which 
communicates with the Sound of Mull, and is part of the 
West Sea. At Corpach it is intended to form a sealock, to 
be cut out of the rock, and to make a small basin within it, ca- 
pable of admitting a number of vessels with the flowing tide, 
which, after the gates are closed, may ascend the locks at lei- 
sure, of which the v/hole number will be twenty-five, and the 



225 

number of lock-gates thirty- eight : these, by being in clusters, 
as they are intended to be, will be much less expensive than in 
separate locks, on account of the back of one forming the frdnt 
of the next, whereas separate locks must be complete in all their 
parts. Upon this canal it is intended to construct bridges simi- 
lar to those which are at the West- India Docks, and which have 
been imitated in cast iron at the London- Docks : they swing 
horizontally to each side of the canal, or lock. At the eastern 
end of Loch Eil stands Fort William, as far as which there is a 
safe navigation and harbour for shipping. In this manner the 
junction of the two seas will be effected. 

The Lochs Eil and Doughfour are to be deepened by steam 
engines, as the scarcity of provender renders the keeping of 
horses very expensive. The canal is twenty feet d«ep, fifty 
wide at bottom, and one hundred and ten feet wide at top, 'will 
admit of the passage of thirty-two-gun frigates, and of course 
of the largest merchaat- vessels. It was originally intended to 
have cut the canal so as to admit of forty-four-gun frigates j 
but not only would the additional cost have been very great, 
but it was by no means certain that the depth of water in Loch 
Beauly, near the eastern entrance of the canal, would safely or 
conveniently admit the passage of frigates of so large a rate at 
the ordinary high-water depth. The time of passing a thirty- 
eight feet lock will be about twenty minutes, a forty-feet lock 
about twenty-two minutes, and a forty-three-feet lock twenty- 
five minutes. The smallest size of vessels trading to the Baltic 
is about seventy-five feet in length, twenty one feet in width, in 
draught of water twelve feet, and in harden one hundred and 
twenty tons. The largest size is about one hundred and thirty 
feet long, thirty-five feet wide, in draught of water nineteen 
feet, and in burden six hundred and fifty tons. 

Timber, stone, lime, &c. have been found at convenient dis- 
tances. Since June, 1806, the labourers employed, who, the 
public will be pleased to hear, are almost all Highlanders, have 
not been so numerous as in the preceding twelvemonth, when 
their number fluctuated from one thousand one hundred and 
sixty-three to six hundred and forty-one, whereas, in the last 
year, the number varied from nine hundred and sixty to five 
hundred and eighty-one, a larger number being employed du- 
ring the summer than in the winter months, and of course their 
numbers are lessened in the seasons for potato-planting, and 
the herring-fishery. Upwards of 38,700/. was paid for labour, 
from May, 1806, to Mav, 1807, whereas, in the preceding 

F f 



226 

tweivetnoiith, only 33,S00/. was paid, although the number of 
labourers then employed was considerably greater, and although 
the price oF labour has continued very nearly the same, a cir- 
cumstance attributed to an increase of skill and industry among 
the workmen, which is said to be very perceptible. Those who 
reside in the neighbourhood occasionally depart, on account of 
their domestic occupations, but readily return upon notice being 
given for their attendance. This increased assiduity amongst 
the workmen is attributable in a great measure to their being 
regularly paid every four weeks, without the delay of a single 
day since the commencement of the work, by which means 
they have been taught the advantage of industry, and a confi- 
dence has been inspired that has operated to keep down the 
price of materials and workmanship in a degree not otherwise 
attainable. 

As the canal has advanced, temporary huts and sheds have 
been erected to accommodate this considerable accession of po- 
pulation, and stores of oatmeal have been sold at prime cost : 
cows are kept, and a brewery has been established ; the latter, 
most wisely, to counteract as far as it can an excessive use of 
whisky, which, however, in proper quantities, I should conceive 
to be necessary to qualify the raw moisture of the climate. 

It has been asserted that this undertaking has had no influ- 
ence in checking Highland emigration, upon the presumption 
that those who engage themselves as labourers in it are not of 
that description of Highlanders who feel any disposition to emi- 
grate, a class generally supposed to be composed of little farmers, 
descended from chieftains ; but the reverse of this seems to be 
the fact : the labour of digging more coincides with the habits 
of the Highlander than the sedentary occupation of a manu- 
facture, and it is known, that amongst a body of Highlanders, 
actually embarked on board of a vessel for America, fifty re- 
turned on shore before she sailed, upon receiving assurances of 
employment in the canal, which, when completed, will rival, if 
not surpass, the celebrated canals of Trolhaetta, in Sweden, and 
of Languedoc. 

To find employment for the dispossessed Highlanders, and to 
restrain, by occupations at home, the spirit of Highland emi- 
gration, are objects of no little importance. The extent of the 
trade which may be expected to receive benefit, with respect to 
security and despatch, from the completion of the Caledonian 
Canal (omitting the whole of the trade between the eastern and 
western coasts of Scotland,) appears, from several official ac- 



on' 



counts prepared in conformity to an order of the House of Com- 
mons of the 11th of February, 1806, to amount, in value of 
imports and exports, to about two millions six hundred thou- 
sand pounds i of course the tolls to be paid for vessels passing 
through the canal will be very great. 

"When this union of the seas is effected, the amelioration of 
this part of the Highlands, and of a considerable distance round, 
must be great and rapid. New sources of industry and enter- 
prise will be opened, new settlements will be established, new 
towns will rise, the fisheries will be increased, and Agriculture 
will wave, wherever the soil will admit, her golden harvest. 
The amount of monies already expended upon this stupendous 
undertaking, up to May, 1807, is 151,71 1/. It is probable that 
the expense of the whole, by the time it is completed, will ex- 
ce^ half a million. Unless many more hands can be procured, 
that event cannot be looked forward to for many years to come. 
With such undertakings as these, and such national advantages 
as must in consequence flow from their accomplishments, we 
may with regret, but not apprehension, contemplate the gigan- 
tic progress of French aggrandizement. The resources of our 
own country are inexhaustible •, but many of them, though 
pointed to by the hand of Nature, remain unnoticed or un- 
known. A wise policy will at last teach us to turn our eyes, as 
it were, inwards ; to look at home, where we shall find enough 
remains to be done ; and not to waste our strength and our ener- 
gies upon distant countries, which court our alliance only in the 
hour of peril, or which, after having invited our assistance, cold- 
ly turn from us, and basely submit to the yoke of the foe by a 
feeble or faithless co-operation. 

Thank Heaven that Britain, though great in commerce, is 
not solely commercial ; and that there are thousands and tens 
of thousands who have never seen a ship, and who have no ade- 
quate conception of its construction or power. Our merchants, 
glittering as they are with well-acquired gold, are but a fringe 
upon *' the robe of russet brown." Britain can boast of that 
best strength of all countries, a bold, manly, active, and nume- 
rous peasantry, and a spirit of agricultural enterprise, to which 
Nature yields without reluctance, and the soil unfolds its inmost 
treasures. That wise policy seems to dawn upon the Highlands 
of Scotland, and the time may not be far off when the hardy 
mountaineer, with patriotic attachment, unquenchable as the 
Grecian light, may find full and ample occupation in the dear 
and cherished spot of his nativity. 



228 

Inverness is celebrated in ancient story oh account of its poeti- 
cal schools (Schoil Bhairdeachd), in which the Bards were train- 
ed, and used to perform certain exercises and examinations, 
when those who did not acquit themselves to the satisfaction of 
the proper judges were rejected, a circumstance which some- 
times occurred after many years intense application. Unpre- 
meditated subjects were frequently proposed at these examina- 
tions, and the Poet who was most successful obtained, as a re-r 
ward, one cupfuU of wine from the King's own hand, and ano- 
ther cupfull of gold j so attentive were the Scots in those early 
ages to the cultivation of letters. 

This Highland capital must also have been long in a state of 
comparative refinement. The ancient Kings and their courts 
often visited the Highlands, and Inverness was frequently 
honoured with being the seat of the royal residence. The Kings 
of Scotland used to hold the Circuit Court in person, and the 
last of its Sovereigns who thus presided at this town, was the 
unfortunate Queen Mary : the liouse in which she lodged 
on these occasions, is still standing, though I saw nothing 
about it worthy of particular description. The Lords of Jus- 
ticiary now hold the Circuit Court in the spring and au- 
tumn. 

It is a matter of curious observation that the river Ness, like 
the lake from which it issues, never freezes, OAving, as it is sup- 
posed, to its being strongly impregnated with sulphur ; and that 
in the winter, if horses are led into it, with icicles hanging 
round th«ir fetlocks, produced by other waters, they will speed- 
ily dissolve. It has also been asserted that iron will not cor- 
rode in this river, nor in Loch Ness. The inhabitants along the 
lake have frequently seen, in severe frosts, a steam hovering 
over it, which is considered as a sulphureous exhalation ; but 
this is equivocal, for it might as well be an ordinary as a sul- 
phureous vapour, and, if the former, it is rendered visible by 
the keen purity of the air. 

Inverness is also indebted for much of its interesting charac- 
ter to another extraordinary cause, viz, the ruins of a vitrified 
fortt which, as well as others of a similar nature, have hitherto 
baffled the learning and investigation of the antiquary. This 
fort is in the form of a parallelogram, about eighty yards long, 
and thirty broad. Upon removing the turf and earth with 
which the ruins are covered, the stones appear to be firmly 
blended together by vitrified matter, resembling the scoriae of an 
iron foundery, or the volcanic substances to be seen near the 



229 

Giant's Causeway in Ireland i in many parts of the wall the 
stones are completely fused ; in others the fusion has been par- 
tial, and they are sunk into the vitrified matter. There are se- 
veral other viti-ified forts in Scotland, generally situated upon the 
summits of hills. Some philosophers have supposed the ruins ta 
be the production of volcanos now extinguished, and real lava ; 
but this theory seems to be effectually contravened by the form 
and regularity of these ruins. 

Others maintain that these buildings were originally construct- 
ed of stone, and bound together with great beams and posts of 
timber, as Caesar describes the ancient Gauls to have erected 
their fortifications, to resist* the battering ram ; and that when 
such fortresses were assailed by fire, the large quantities of tim- 
ber contained in them produced sufficient heat to effect a partial 
fusion of the stones, and thus the vitrification was accomplish- 
ed at the time of their demoHtion ; but this theory is, to my 
mind, nearly as objectionable as the last, because the vitrification 
appears to be pretty nearly equal on all sides, and it is scarcely 
reasonable to suppose that the conflagration was so too, for the 
action of the wind alone would no doubt make it more intense 
on one side than on another. 

For my own part, and I mention it with becoming diffidence, 
I am inclined to think the vitrification purely artificial, and 
xoeval with the building. Mr. Williams, who has written upon 
the subject, conceives that such was the case, and that it was 
used by the builders, who were unacquainted with cement, to 
make their forts more impregnable. He refers to the times of 
Fingal, and observes that the fort on Knockfarril is called hy the 
common people Knock-farriUna-Fion, or Fingal's Seat, or Rest- 
ing-place. The above authority supposes that some great fires, 
which the ancient inhabitants of those countries have used either 
in running bog-ore for their iron utensils or in offering burnt 
sacrifices, would give them the first hint that a strong fire 
would vitrify stones and unite them together ; which hint 
some genius might improve, and apply to the cementation of 
forts. 

Mr. Williams conceives that two parallel walls or dykes were 
raised of earth or sods, and a space between equal to the thick- 
ness of the intended wall : that these parallel dykes formed the 
mould or groove into which they were to run their vitrified 
wall, which groove was supplied with sufficient fuel, on which 
they laid a proper quantity of the materials to be vitrified ; that 
a hot fire would melt the stones, especially if they were of the 



230 

breccia or pudding kind, and not large ; and that the frame of 
earth would keep the materials, when in fusion, from running 
without the breadth of the intended wall: having thus laid the 
foundation, he supposes they added new fires and more mate- 
rials, and raised their mould of earth by degrees, until they had 
formed the whole to the intended height, upon which the earth 
was removed from both- sides of the vitrified wall. In all the 
sections of the larger and smaller fragments of the vitrified ruins 
which he has inspected, he has never seen the appearance of a 
stone laid in any particular way. 

This fusion might also have been effected in another way, by 
the use of kelp, or common sea-wedd, which being intermingled 
in great abundance, or stratified with the stones of the building, 
as is done with bricks or lime-stone in a kiln, and large quantities 
being laid over the walls, the whole was set on fire, and that by 
this process the stones of the wall were softened, and cemented 
together by being partially vitrified. In confirmation of this 
last conjecture it has been remarked, that the kind of stones of 
which such forts are built is easily melted by the aid of the mi- 
neral alkali, which abounds in kelp or sea- weed ; and it has al- 
so been observed, that all the forts of this description are in 
the neighbourhood of the sea-side, where kelp could be easily 
procured. 

It is very likely that the vitrified ruins at Inverness are the 
remains of a fort raised by one of the two methods last men- 
tioned, and that it was a royal residence ; as a slight corrobo- 
ration of this idea I beg to mention, that little more than a year 
since, as the workmen employed on the Caledonian Canal were 
cutting through the side of the hill Torravain, near Inverness, 
and close to the old road leading to Loch Ness, they discovered 
a silver chain of double links, having thirty rings ; the silver 
had a small alloy in it of brass or copper ; a human skeleton was 
found near the chain, and a piece of the same metal, resembling 
bracelets, but too small to have been used as such ; a silver- 
smith purchased these antiquities for 10/. It is not unlikely, 
from the rude workmanship of the chain, that the skeleton 
might have belonged to a Pictish King. Adamnan, in his Life 
of Saint Columba, mentions that Brudius, King of the Picts, 
who was converted by the saint to the Christian faith, had a pa- 
lace at Inverness. The cutting of the Caledonian Canal may 
perhaps lead to a considerable illustration of the ancient history 
of that part of the country through which it passes ; and 



231 

much matter for learned investigation may be afForded to the 
antiquary ab well as the geologist and the lover of mineralogy. 

It is a singular circumstance that Dr. Johnson makes no men- 
tion of the vitrified forts. 

As the Gaelic language is every where much spoken, and al- 
most exclusively so amongst the peasantry in the Highlands, a 
few remarks upon it, imparted to me by a gentleman who is well 
acquainted with the language, may perhaps be not unpleasingto 
my readers. 

The Gaehc language is as copious as the Greek, and as suita- 
ble to poetry as the modern Italian. It is a curious circumstance 
that it possesses a poetical dialect, as well as one confined to 
prose. It owes much of its beauty to its immense number of 
vowels and dipthongs j it is also barren in names for things of 
foreign or recent invention, although luxuriant in words to ex- 
press every object of nature and every instrument of the com- 
mon and universal arts. It was formerly the general language of 
Europe. The Welch and the Irish are dialects of the Gaelic. 
In the common language of Scotland, Irish and Erse are both 
used to denote the speech of the Highlanders, and are synony- 
mous. John Major, in liis Annals of Scotland, published in 
1521, when enumerating the talents of King James, says that 
" he was a skilful musician \ in the management of his voice in 
singing, inferior to no one ; on the harp, he was another Or- 
pheus ; he excelled the Irish, or the Highland Scots, who are es- 
teemed the best performers on that instrument." In Scotland it 
was long the common language of the country, the court, the 
bar, and the senate. So recently as in the reign of the illustri- 
ous Robert Bruce, the debates in the parliament held at Ard- 
chattan, in Argyleshire, were carried on in this language. It 
has a regular and established standard, and is now becoming 
very fashionable amongst the higher orders of the Scottish peo- 
ple, in many of whose houses I have seen schoolmasters in- 
structing the elder and the younger branches of families in it. 
To my ear it sounded very soft and harmonious. 

It is worthy of remark that this language has experienced such 
little change, that it would be difficult for the nicest critic to 
discover the difference in grammar or orthography between 
the language used by the natives of the remote regions of St. 
Kilda and that spoken by the best- taught and refined Gaelic 
scholar. 



232 
The following is a specimen of the Gaelic language :— 

ORIGINAL. LITERAL TRANSL AT.ION. 

Bu chian ar sgaoileadh o cheile Far would disperse asunder, 
Fea' gach sleibh air barra bhac ; Through the steep banks of each mountain 
Laochrai' chaltna, churant Fhinn, The strong adventurous band of Fingal, 
'S am bogha gach tiom nan glaic. With bows ready in their grasp. 
*Nuair a dh'eiradh seilgan fheidh, When the deer began to start, 
Dh' fhuasgladhmaid na ceuda cu ; We let slip the hundreds of hounde j 
S'ioma' damh, earb, agus adh Many a hart, roe, and hind, 

A thuiteadtb, 'sa bhail gach iul Fell as far as 1 could view. chase, 

Philleamaid )e'r seiigtra-non We returned at noon with the spoils of the 

GuTeamhra' cheoimhor nan teud, To the musical Taura of strings. 
Am bu lianmhor cruit is clar Where numerous werecruits and harps 

'S ioma' Bard a sheinneadh sgeul And many a Bard to sing a tale. 
B'ioma' slige doll mun cuairt Many a shell went round, 

'S dana nua' ga luadh le cheil And new songs were sung together, 
A'caitheamh na feist's ann tur. Whilst the feast was consuming in the 

tower. 

Great merit is due to Dr. Johnson, to whose literary influence 
the Highlanders are indebted for the translation of the New 
Testament into the Erse language. From a want of judgment 
some political members of the Society in Scotland for propaga- 
ting Christian knowledge opposed this measure, conceiving that 
the encouragement of the Gaelic language had a tendency to 
perpetuate national distinctions, a misconception which the mas- 
terly pen of Johnson overpowered by force of reasoning. The 
same short-sighted policy prevented any publication of conse- 
quence from appearing in this language ; but, hy degrees, the 
Gaelic has provided employment for the press. 

Before I quit this subject, I cannot help relating an interest- 
ing anecdote of the effect of this language upon a Highlan- 
der, in a distant region, communicated to me by the gallant 
Major Macquarrie, of the 42d. During the time that the navy 
and army destined against Egypt remained at Marmorice, in 
Natolia, in Asiatic Turkey, the Chaur Pacha came from Con- 
stantinople, as well to pay his respects as to afford every facility 
and assistance to the Admiral and Commander-in-Chief, in 
making arrangements necessary for the success of the expedi- 
tion. When he came on board his Majesty's ship of war the 
Kent, to visit the Commander-in-Chief, Major Macquarrie was 
ordered to parade the grenadier company, to receive and salute 
him. As this personage with his numerous retinue were enter- 
ing the cabin of Sir Ralph Abercrombie, one of the attendant? 



233 

appeared studiously to place himself in the rear of the group, 
as if he wished to speak to the Highlander, who stood to the 
right of the company, and close to the door which they were 
entering. As this Highlander, and the rest of his comrades, 
were fixed in observing the novel appearance of the figure, 
dress, and deportment, of their Asiatic visiters, the Turk I 
have mentioned touched the former on the shoulder, and ad- 
dressed him in good Gaelic, to this effect : — " My lad, I am 
happy to see my countrymen once more, particularly those in 
the pbilibegy which I have not seen for many years." If a comet 
had that moment passed before his eyes, or a thunderbolt had 
fallen at his feet, the poor fellow could not have been more pe- 
trified with astonishment, which had nearly loosened his miisket 
from his hand. When the company came out, the Major en- 
deavoured to prevail upon him to converse again, which he de- • 
clined, except to assure him that he would return the next day 
alone, and with pleasure satisfy his curiosity. This gentleman 
proved to be of a very respectable family in Argyleshire, which 
he left when a boy, and was then a General Officer in the Turk- 
ish army. 

The Erse language is so prevalent in the following districts, 
that the clergy are required to perform Divine Service in it, 
viz. the shires of Sutherland, Ross, Cromarty, Inverness, and 
Argyle, the islands of Bute and Arran, and the parishes of Reay, 
Thurso, Halkirk, and Latheron, in Caithness, those of Nairn, 
Ardclach, and Calder, in Nairnshire, that of Duthel, in Elgin- 
shire, that of Kirkmichael, in Banffshire, those of Luss and 
Arrochar, in Dumbartonshire, and those of Balquhidder, 
Blair, and Strowan, Callendar, Comrie, Dull, Fortingall, Ken- 
more, Killin, Kirkmichael, Logierait, Mouline, and Weem, in 
Perthshire. There are also other parishes where the Gaelic 
language is used, but not by the majority of the inhabitants. 



234 



CHAPTER XXI. 

Road to Jcrt Augmtus-^appearance of Loch Ness descriked'-r^encrnious 
stones— anecdotes of general Wade— 'general'' s hnt—^Fall of Fyers—-' 

Caues — fort Augustus— -moisture of climate— drying-houses — Letter 
Findiey — Highland hut— the roof tree — Highland prejudice — beautiful 

dunghills'— Highlandlii'ing — anecdote— fr -slip candles, 

THE road from Inverness to Fort Augustus must be 
much improved since Dr. Johnson travelled this way, for he ob- 
serves, " We were now to bid farewell to the luxury of travel- 
ling, and to enter a country, upon which perhaps no wheel has 
ever rolled." It is usual to hire post-chaises all the way to Oban, 
there being no intermediate stages where they can be engaged. 
I felt myself fortunate in procuring a good single-horse chaise 
and an excellent horse, which left me more at liberty to see 
the country. A recommendation to take a stock of wheat- 
bread w^ith me, gave me but an unfavourable impression of 
the agriculture of the country through which I was about to 
pass. 

The ride to Dores, the first and a very short stage, is ex- 
tremely beautiful -, in my way I passed by a Druid's temple, the 
form of which every one is familiar with. Near this place, up- 
on the top of a hill, the vast watery expanse of Loch Ness, un- 
broken by islands, twenty-four miles long, and nearly straight 
from south-west to north-east, opened upon me with all its 
grandeur. Cultivated fields and a forest of pine formed a cor- 
responding fore-ground ; rocks and mountains — some htige, 
bare, and rugged, and gashed by wintry torrents — others adorn- 
ed with woods of fir and birch, and all blending with perfect 
harmony of colouring in which the heathy purple and a soft 
yellov/ seemed to have most diffusion — hung awfully over, or 
rose with a majestic sweep from the sides of the watery vista, 
hiding their sublime summits in the clouds. Over many a mile 
of water the eye beheld irs surface, here gently agitated by a 
partial breeze, there as tranquil as a mirror, reflecting upon its 
bosom huge fragments of the adjoining crags or mountains ; 
whilst, far in the west, this graceful and sublime scene fad^d in 
the sombre mist of distance, and in the darkness of cloud col- 



235 

iected from the Atlantic. The prospect led my mind to reflect 
upon the bright and shaded vicissitudes of life, ending in the 
gloom of the grave. 

From the heights about Inverness, the people, under a be- 
nign and unchanging sky, can, for weeks together, see the west 
involved in clouds, pouring down a deluge upon the natives 
within their range below. Nature, as if to exhibit her peculiar 
fondness for this grand production of hers, has exempted the 
lake, as I have observed of its river, from one of the great ope- 
rations of Winter ; she has bestowed upon it the privilege of 
perpetual fluidity, in consequence of which, when other waters 
are frozen, it is the haunt of all sorts of aquatic birds. 

The road winds along the lake, and is lined on each side with 
thick hazle and birch trees, resembling copses, called shaws by 
the Scottish Bard, and is at short distances channelled by the 
fury of winter torrents. The drive along the lake was truly de- 
lightful ; the water rippled at the base of the mountains, on the 
side of which, with great skill, and labour, the road was cut ; "i^^ 
and a tranquil grandeur pervaded the whole scene. The enor- 
mous stones which are raised at various intervals cannot fail to 
attract the notice of the traveller, and are but in a small de- 
gree less surprising In size and elevation than those which con- 
stitute the druidical fane. I have no doubt that the Druids, 
who were a learned body, were acquainted with the astonishing 
powers of the lever and the screw, and used them to increase the 
awful impression of supernatural agency upon the vulgar mind. 
Supernatural indeed must their energies have been, if, without 
such a mechanical aid, or the mode hereafter mentioned, they 
could have raised such stupendous masses of stone as are in many 
places to be seen to this day. Perhaps the most extraordinary 
remains of this kind are mentioned to have been seen in East- 
ern Island, by Captain Cooke, who describes them as gigantic 
statues, of a grey stone, the same as the vast and ingeniously 
contrived platforms on which the rest are formed with : — « We- 
could hardly conceive," says he, " how these islanders, wholl]r 
unacquainted with any mechanical power, could raise such stu- 
pendous figures, and afterwards place the large cylindric stones, 
before mentioned, upon their heads. The only method I can 
conceive is by raising the upper end by little and little, support- 
ing it by stones as it is raised, and building about it until they 
got it erect ; thus a sort of mount, or scaffolding, would be 
made, upon which they might roll the cylinder, and place it 
upon the head of the statue, and then the stones might be re- 



236 

moved from about It. But if the stpnes are factitious, the sta- 
tues might have been put together on the place, rn their present 
position, and the cylinder put on by building a mount round 
them, as above mentioned. But, let them have been made and 
set up by this or any other method, they must have been a work 
of immense time, and sufficiently shew the ingenuity and per- 
severance of the islanders in the age in which they were built." 
Cooh^s Foyagesy vol. i. p. 296. 

Many of the stones thus perpendicularly elevateii pn the road 
are seven and eight feet high. The moving of these §tones as- 
tonished the natives at the time, and formed the subject of many 
little romantic and fabulous stories. This road is one of the 
several military ones, which have much conduced to the amelio- 
ration of Scotland. Before the roads were constructed, th^ 
sHighlanders seldom held any intercourse with each other be- 
yond the boundaries of their glens ; and wheia General Wade, 
under whose inspection the military roads in the Highlands 
^ve^e made> first appeared in a carriage drawn by six horses, 
amongst these Alpine natives, they paid the greatest homage to 
the postilions and coachman, and wholly disregarded the Ge- 
neral and his friends in the coach, whom they considered to be 
of no consequence, from their being so shut up in the car- 
riage. 

These roads have been principally formed in the summer 
season, by large detachments from Highland regiments- lying in 
barracks, and in other quarters in the Highlands. On the 
working days each private had six pence extra, a corporal eight 
pence, and a serjeant one shilling ; many other national objects 
might have been achieved in the same manner with great saving 
to the state,^and an acceptable augmentation to the soldiers' pay, 
had the same policy been adopted in the other parts of the 
United Kingdom. 

The solemn expanse of the lake, as I advanced towards Bo- 
leskine, was a little relieved by the appearance of a victualling 
vessel, belonging, as I was informed, to Fort Augustus, from 
which it was bound to Inverness, for provisions, &c. for the gar- 
rison. Enchanted with my drive, I arrived at the inn usually 
known by the appellation of the General's Hut, so called from 
General Wade, who, when he commanded in the north, lived 
in a small temporary building upon the site of, or near to, the 
present inn. This inn is a solitary house, and stands upon a 
considerable eminence in one of the finest situations which the 
imagination can depict. From this spot the remains of the Cas- 



237 

tie of Urquhart, standing on an opposite point to the eastward, 
projecting into the lake, are seen. The Scots contemplate this 
ruin with patriotic devotion, on account of its being the last for- 
tress that held out against the arms of Edward the First. From 
this spot, too, the lake, and all its majestic associates of rock and 
mountain, appear to the highest advantage, and strongly re- 
minded me of the scenery in the neighbourhood of Stockholm, 
which I contemplated from a mountain in the Gulph of Both- 
nia. Near the inn, is an unfinished lodge of the Honourable 
Archibald Frazer, a son of the celebrated Lord Lovat, known 
in the annals of 1745. 

It is a pleasant circumstance for travellers in this solitary re- 
gion to find a very civil innkeeper, who has one of the prettiest 
women I saw in the Highlands for his wife. The house is a 
poor one, but the possessor of it promised to put it in excellent 
condition if he could procure a lease of it ; he obtained from me 
a promise to write to his landlord, to recommend his wishes, 
which I have done. If the application succeeds it will be very 
beneficial to future travellers. In this application I should have 
been joined by Lord Trafalgar, who was also at this house, and 
was equally pleased with the attentions of the worthy High- 
lander, had not a sudden and fatal indisposition deprived his 
country of a young nobleman who promised well to support, 
with the dignity of virtue, the well-earned honours of the il- 
lustrious Nelson. 

It is a matter of considerable consequence to travellers in 
these parts that there should be a good- inn upon this spot, and 
I hope that the liberty I have taken in recommending the wish- 
es of my honest host will not be unavailing. After an excelleni; 
Highland dinner, I proceeded to the Fall of Phoyers, or Fyers, 
about a mile and a half oiF, in my way to Fort Augustus. Af- 
ter I had left the General's Hut about a quarter of a mile, the 
road curved through the mountains towards Strath Errick. This 
cataract is very lofty and grand, and is considered as the chief of 
the Caledonian falls. The thunder of its waters, which descend 
into a gloomy abyss of uncouth and rugged masses of sable 
rock and cliffs, wooded with weeping birch, yew, holly, and 
hazel, is heard from the road ; and, contemplated from the 
various directions in which the behcflder is placed by the 
guide, above, midway, and below, it is truly grand and aw- 
ful. 

From a hillock, rendered forever verdant by the mists of the 
f ataract, called, I believe, " the Green Bank," the traveller has 



238 

the finest view of the fall. Here, looking through the splendid 
prismatic arch of its own iris, the white foam of this Niagara 
of the north is seen, whilst many a graceful tree and scented 
herb are moistened by the soft showers of its spray, and the 
deep ravine below seems filled with steam. This wonderful 
cataract is formed by the confluence of several great mountain- 
streams, and the river of a loch in the neighbourhood. Burns 
has thus celebrated it : — 

Among tlie heathy hills and ragged woods. 
The roaring Fyers pours his mossy floodsj 
Till full ije dashes vu the rocky mounds, 
Wherethro' a shapeless breach his stream resounds 
As high in air the bursting torrents flow, 
As deep recoiling surges foam below, 
Prone down the rock the whitening sheet descends, 
And viewless Echo's ear astonish'd rends. 
Dim seen thro' rising mists and ceaseless show'rs. 
The hoary cavern wide surrounding lowVsj 
Still thro' the gap the struggling river toils. 
And still below the horrid cauldron boils." 

About a hundred yards higher up, there are several large 
caves, more interesting from their having been the secluded asy- 
lums of many of the unfortunate rebels, who found in them a 
protection from the slaughter which reddened the plains of Cul- 
loden with the blood of their countrymen ; and adjoining there 
is a beautiful view from a bridge of one arch, resting upon two 
opposite rocks, through which the river flows, till it thunders 
down in the cataract of Fyers. 

Upon quitting this spot, the road turned from the lake 
through a defile of hills, bordered by trees and bushes, till I at 
length ascended into a region of mountains, jumbled together 
as by an earthquake, when all around me became dark, savage, 
barren, and desolate, and for several miles I neither heard the 
voice of man, beast, nor bird, nor saw the appearance of them, 
nor the means by which they could be nourished. It strongly 
brought to my recollection many parts of the mountainous drive 
from Killarney to Cork, in Ireland. An occasional view of two 
small lakes was all that I beheld to mitigate the horrors of this 
continued scene of desolation. It was evening when I arrived 
at Fort Augustus, where I found a tolerable inn, and the next 
morning paid my respects to the Lieutenant-Governor, Colonel 
Brodie, to whom I had a letter of recommendation, and with 



239 

whom I breakfasted. This fort, which, seen from the heights 
towards Loch Ness, resembles an old decayed palace, stands at 
the head of the lake on a small plain, and possesses little worthy 
of observation. Within, it is like the quadrangle of a college. 
It has four bastions, and tw^enty pieces of cannon, six-pounders 
each i and is garrisoned by one company of soldiers. The bar- 
racks are able to accommodate four hundred men. As a place 
of defence it is only necessary to mention that it was easily taken 
by the raw rebels of 1746, who considering it, as it is fair to 
suppose, untenable, soon deserted it, after demolishing what 
they could. In Erse this fort is called Kill Ghuimin, or the 
burial-place of the Cummins. It is little more than a mere Uncle 
Toby fortification. I was more pleased with seeing the mountain., 
ash which grew about it, and the Governor's little garden, than 
the whole fortress. 

Within a few miles of this fort are the celebrated parallel 
roads in Glen Roy, which, as the learned in antiquity suppose, 
were constructed for the accommodation of the ancient Scottish 
Kings. 

There are also in the district of Glenelg, opposite to the Isle 
of Sky, the ruins of some ancient circular buildings, resem- 
bling glass-houses, by some supposed to be Danish forts, but 
which have long afforded controversial matter for antiquaries. 

The view of the lake, from this fort, must be very beautiful 
on a fine day, with which I was not favoured, and which is 
somewhat of a rarity in this weeping climate. From a register of 
the weather at this place, kept for one year, ending May, 1807, 
it appears that, out of three hundred and sixty-five days, there 
were only one hundred and five fair. Some wag has said that 
the climate of the west was composed of nine months of winter, 
and three of bad weather. 

At the Governor's breakfast-table I observed that the wheaten 
bread was mouldy, owing, as I was informed, to the fort being 
dependent upon Inverness for its regular supplies of this article, 
and I found that I had been well advised in laying in a store of 
it, particularly as the oaten cake disagreed with me. Here it 
will be necessary for the traveller to lay in provision for Let- 
ter Findley. This part of the county of Inverness-shire is so 
frequently exposed to rain, that the peasants seldom depend up- 
on saving their corn in the open air j drying-houses are therefore 
used by such as can afford them, in which the sheaves are singly 
hung upon a peg until they are dry enough to make room for 
others. The people are restricted to the most degenerated 



240 

species of oats, with the hairy-bearded husk, a light small kind 
of beer, and potatoes. 

From Fort Augustus Dr. Johnson and Mr. Boswell turned 
off to Glensheals, in their way to the Island of Sky, which is 
the nearest route. 

Upon quitting it for Fort William I left the river Oich to my 
right, and, after crossing a bridge, I entered a long and dreary 
defile of barren mountains, whose sides bore ample testimony to 
the violence of the winter torrents, and in the road the carriage- 
wheel was seldom out of water. A few ash and hazle trees oc- 
casionally gladdened the eye. About three miles from the Fort 
Loch Oich, and its river flowing from it, appeared, with a large 
range of verdant mountains on either side, occasionally well 
clothed with mountain-ash, firs, elder, and birch. As I passed 
along the rocky shores of this lake, I was much pleased with the 
contrast of the modern house and old castle of Glengarry, and 
the roads behind, belonging to Macdonnell of Glengarry. They 
possessed the united attraction of beauty and rarity. In every 
direction were water-falls, at this time rather slenderly sup- 
plied. 

As I approached Loch Lochy the rains began to descend, and 
at the head of the lake my eye could only travel midway up the 
stupendous mountains between which it is expanded. I passed 
near Laggan, deserving of notice for its having been the resi- 
dence, and its surrounding scenery the subject of the pen, of 
Mrs. Grant, a lady who has deservedly raised herself to literary 
eminence by her very interesting "Letters from the Mountains" 
and several elegant effusions of her Muse. 

Letter Findley is a solitary inn, as dirty and miserable as any 
venta in Spain ; and worse, with regard to cleanliness and ac- 
commodation, than any other in Scotland that I met with. 
The children belonging to the house appeared to be, as it is ten- 
derly called, smitten^ or devoured, with a cutaneous disease, 
called, from a false impression of its being almost peculiar to 
Scotland, the Caledonian Cremona, or Scottish Fiddle. This 
disorder is principally engendered by habits of filth ; and, as 
far as I had opportunities of observing, and of collecting 
information from medical gentlemen upon the subject, has 
been very much reduced pf late years amongst the lower or- 
ders. 

I had before seen specimens of Highland hamlets, and in my 
way to this place I passed by another of them. At a distance 
they resemble a number of piles of turf. In general they are 



2^1 

built in glens and'straths, or lipon the side of a lake, or near a 
river or stream, adjoining to which there is a little arable land. 
This near Letter Findley is close to the shores of the lake, all 
the huts of which appear to be constructed after the same style 
of rude architecture. The walls are built of turf or stones, ac- 
cording to the nature of the adjoining soil, and raised abovft six 
feet high, on the top of which a roof of branches of trees is 
constructed •, this is covered with squares of turf, of about six 
inches thick, closely pressed together, and put on fresh, from 
its parent moor, with the grass or heath upon it, which after- 
wards continues to grow, and renders it difficult fpr a traveller 
unless he be very sharp-sighted, to distinguish at a little distance 
the hut from the moor. I have seen many of these buildings in 
high vegetation, and in that respect they remind me of the 
same description of buildings in Sweden. 

I was obliged to stoop on entering the door of these sylvan 
abodes, and within saw a cabin which brought to my recollec- 
tion that of Robinson Crusoe : upon the ground, about the cen- 
tre, was the fire, the smoke of which escaped through a hole in 
the top of the roof but not without having first blackened every 
part of it within, till the rafters looked like charcoal ; ands 
unless the covering should be weather-proof, the rain must fall 
within as black as ink-drops. In others there was a little fire- 
place of iron bars, with a hob on either side, and above a crank; 
for holding the meikle pot. The only furniture I saw were 
some boxes, stools, pails, an iron pot, some bowls and spoons 
of wood, and also a cupboard, or shelves, for holding provi- 
sions. 

A tolerable hut is divided into three parts: a butt, which is 
the kitchen ; a benn, an inner-room ; and a byar, where the 
cattle are housed. Frequently the partition ot the chambers is 
effected by an old blanket, or a piece of sail-cloth. In the kit- 
chen, and frequently in the inner rooni, there are cupboard- 
beds for the family : or, what is more frequent, when the fire, 
on the ground is extinguished, they put their bed of heath and 
blankets upon the spot where it has burned, on account of the 
ground being dry. A true farmer loves to sleep near the byar, 
that he may hear his cattle eat. These patriarchal dwellings 
frequently tremble, and sometimes fall, before the fury of the 
tempest. I was told that very far north, when a Highland 
peasant entertains his friends with a cheerful glass of whiskey, 
it is usual, as a compliment to the hpst, to drink to his roof-tree^ 
alluding to the principal beam, which by its weight enables the 

H h 



242 

roof to resist the pressure of a mouhtaiu squall, and which 
forms the great protection of the family within from its fury. 

A house with an upper story is called, by way of pre-emi- 
nence, a lofted hut. I was informed by some gentlemen, who 
had long resided in the Highlands, that in some of these misera- 
ble habitations, upon their return from grouse-shooting, they have 
been frequently offered a glass of excellent white or red wine, 
as well as whisky. Another Highland gentleman informed me 
that these mountaineers are so attached to their peat or mud 
hovels, that, although he had erected for some of his tenants 
neat stone cottages, they continued to prefer their former dwel- 
lings, the workmanship of their own hands. 

The Highland peasants, like the Irish, are very much at- 
tached to their dunghills, which are constructed close to their 
doors. To such a pitch of fondness is this carried, that upon 
an order being issued that no one should raise their dung- 
hill in the streets of Callendar, one old lady is said to have 
expressed her joy that she was not deprived of hers by this 
clean and cruel decree, for she had made it in a back room. 

The peat-stack is generally the near neighbour of the dung- 
bill ; by this arrangement the most disgusting objects are strange- 
ly kept in full view. Here, as in Ireland, the dog forms apart 
of the family. The children romp with him ; and in general, 
he is a great favourite. 

The mode of living amongst the Highland peasantry corre- 
sponds with the simplicity of their abodes. Their principal food 
is oaten or barley cakes. Oatmeal Is used in various shapes, 
under the names of brochan, stirabout, sowins, &c. Some- 
times the oaten cake is made of grannaded meal, that is, of 
meal separated from the husks, and roasted by the fire, instead 
of being threshed and kiln-dried. 

Milk also yields a principal source of subsistence. They 
milk not only cows, but goats and ewes. It has been said, but 
I doubt the fact, that oatmeal is sometimes supped dry^ undres- 
sed, or baked, by putting a handful in the mouth, and washing 
it down with water. I was told that the very poor Highlanders 
boil the blood of their cattle, when killed, with a quantity of 
salt, and that, when it becomes cold and solid, they cut it in 
pieces, and use it for food. At Inverness I saw some poor peo- 
ple in the act of carrying blood in bowls, and, upon my asking 
what they intended to do with it, they said, " To make pud- 
dings with it." The Highlanders have had wisdom sufficient 
to see and feel the value of cultivating the potato, a vegetable 



243 

which Nature seems to offer as the bread-fruit of every country. 
The memory of Sir Walter Raleigh deserves more from hir. 
country by having brought the potato from America than if 
he iiad conquered Guiana. I saw few Highland huts which had 
not an adjoining little potato-plot, and I think the Highland 
potato little inferior to the Irish. A very favourite Highland 
dish, of the higher class, is composed of sour cream, sugar, 
whisky, curds, fresh milk, and flummery, a paste produced from 
a preparation of oats steeped in water. The affections of the 
peasant are easily engaged by humouring his prejudices and 
conforming to his habits. It is recorded, in the romantic ac- 
counts of the escapes of Prince Charles Edward, that when he 
effected his retreat to the Hebridean Island of Rasay, in conse- 
quence of almost all the houses having been burnt by the sol- 
diers under the command of the Duke of Cumberland, he was 
obliged to repair to a little hut, recently built by some shep- 
herds, where a fire was kindled, and a bed of heath prepared. 
When the provisions which had been brought with him from 
Kingsburgh were opened, he was presented with wheat-bread 
and brandy, which he declined, declaring that he would not 
taste them whilst oat-bread and whisky lasted, " for these," said 
he, " are my own country's bread and drink." — ^These expres- 
sions greatly increased the affection of the Highlanders for 
him. 

Although society is so widely scattered in the Highlands that 
the natives have not frequent opportunities of assembling on 
convivial occasions, yet with social improvement the use of 
whisky has increased amazingly, although the duty upon it has 
increased too. It appears that the duty on spirits distilled in 
Scotland, exclusive of the duty on malt and malt liquor, im- 
ported spirits and wine, did not produce in the year 1777 the 
mm of 8,000/., whereas in 1806 it produced 250,000/; 

In some of the remote parts of the Highlands, a candb would 
produce as much sensation as a Chinese lantern. On account 
of the difficulty and expense of procuring tallow, they substi- 
tute dried slips of the birch and fir tree, the stumps of which 
they find in the peat-bogs when they cut for fueL The care of 
attending to these rude tapers, which burn quickly and brightly, 
is confided to those of a family who are too aged or too young to 
perform any very serviceable labour. This substitute was hot 
unknown to me. In the course of my rambles in other coun- 
tries I have met with the fir-slip candle. It is frequently used in 
B^ountainous regions. On the borders of Wetteravia, a coua- 



244 

try not far from Franckfort on the Maine, rises a chain of moun- 
tains called Der. Vogelsberg, the produce of which is chiefly po- 
tatoes. On the summit of this mountain the snow defies the 
summer sun. In this elevated region also the lower class of 
peasantry, in their long winter evenings, use, instead of candle, 
slips of fir, a tree which, as well as the oak, flourishes there in 
great abundance. These slips are put in the middle of the room, 
round which the girls of the family assemble to spin, whilst their 
Jovers stand behind, to claim the privilege of a kiss, if their mis- 
tresses make an error in slipping the knot. 



CHAPTER XXII. 

Extent of Highlands— —farming impronjements— rural arrar,gEments-~~rudc 
gear— Fort William— A Highland shoiver, nuhat—fine ^weather hk- 
nvholesome—^Ben Nevis— Cattle fairs — a church -inn— the Cona cfOs- 
sian— horrible massacre^Macdonald of Glencoe—Appin house— Oban, 

IN my progress thus far amongst the Western Highlandsj, 
I had sufiicient opportunity of observing their eminent preten- 
sions to be ranked amongst the sublime and beautiful of nature. 
The Highlands may be said to commence from Dumbarton, near 
the mouth of the Clyde, and comprise the mountainous parts of 
Scotland from thence to the north and north-west, including 
the Hebrides. Their length is about two hundred miles, and 
their breadth varies from fifty to one hundred, yet they have 
no ascertained boundary coinciding with the limits of any civil 
jurisdiction. It is worthy of observation that the ridges of the 
mountains which characterise this part of the country run nearly 
west and east, and that they exhibit evidences highly corrobo- 
rative of the deluge, which, it is fair to suppose, poured in from 
the south-west to the north-east, and produced those vast and 
astonishing inequalities which are visible in this direction upon 
the summits of these and of every other known mountain of 
the earth. The shepherds in the Highlands constantly observe, 
that, vrhilst the south-west side of the hill is sterile, the north- 



245 

east side is rich in soil and pasture, and exiiibiiifs traces of allu- 
vial earth. 

The summits of the mountains have seldom any other cover- 
ing than moss, upon a bed of stones and gravel ; and where 
these have been washed away hy storms, the bare rock appears. 
The sides of these mountains, which are generally clad with 
heath, and other hardy northern plants, can never become 
arable land : it is only in vales and sheltered situations that til- 
lage can be tried with success ; in these spots barley, oats, potaT 
toes, flax, pease, rye, turnips, and some foreign grasses, are cul- 
tivated, but not in a sufficient degree to render the importation 
of grain and meal unnecessary. 

The butter in the Highlands is miich improved : it used to be 
full of hairs, and it was a common saying, that, if the butter 
had no hairs in it, the cow that gave the milk would not thrive. 
The butter of Scotland is in general, I think, inferior to that of 
England, and perhaps a consciousness of this circumstance led to 
the introduction of honey, marmalades, and preserves, upon the 
Scottish breakfast-tables. The Highland honey is in high esti- 
mation, and is indebted for its peculiarly delicious flavour to the 
bloom of the heath. The Lowlanders call themselves the Land 
of Cakes, whilst the Highlanders proudly boast of inhabiting a 
land of milk and honey. 

The domestic distribution of labour in the little Highland 
farms is singularly interesting. The lesser boys take charge of 
the weaned lambs ; the stronger attend the goats to the rocks 
and perilous precipices, upon which they love to browse : the 
young girls are employed at the distaff; the young men attend 
the cattle upon the mountains, whilst their father cultivates his 
little patch of ground, repairs his hut, of which he is the de- 
signer and builder, and upon which occasion the knife, the 
axe, and the augur, are his simple materials ; in this respect, 
however, he is better provided than the Russian boor, who 
works with more skill, neatness, and ingenuity, with only his 
axe. At evening fall the children return home, the bearers of 
fish which they have caught in some neighbouring stream, and 
of alder-bark, and buds of heath and moss, with which their 
mother may stain her home-spun plaid. Amongst the High- 
landers, both young and old, the season of " summer-fiitttng^^ 
when they remove for the summer to the mountains with their 
flocks, is always hailed with a rapturous welcome. At this time 
they live in the mountains in shealings, or little huts con- 
structed for the purpose, and sleep upon beds of heath, lead- 



246 

iog a life perfectly pastoral until the aututnn is advanced, 
when they return to their glens. 

The materials which they adapt to useful purposes are fre- 
quently very simple. In different parts of the Highlands, as 
in the south-west parts of Ireland, straw is found a convenient 
substitute for ropes, The horse-collar and crupper are fre- 
quently made of straw. Sticks of birch twisted together are 
also frequently used for halters and harness^ and are called 
woodies. 

The dimensions of Lochs Oich and Lochy I have before 
given. Upon bidding adieu to Letter Findley, which I should 
have done with great pleasure had not the magnificent grandeur 
of the prodigious mountains, opposite afforded an uncommonly 
rich banquet to the eye, the road lay through a long chain of 
craggy mountains, affording little more variety than what was 
furnished by a miserable straggling hut or two, until my eye 
caught with pleasure a lofty bridge built over the river Spean, 
under the direction of General Wade, to whom the traveller 
in the Highlands finds himself continually under obligation, and 
to whose memory he would gladly contribute his mite to raise a 
monument. Through the arches of this bridge the Spean rushes 
with great rapidity to the head of Loch Lochy. In the winter 
season, this river, in consequence of its being supplied by so 
many mountain torrents, exhibits, as I was informed, a tre- 
mendous descent of waters. As I approached Fort William, I 
passed on my left near the base of Ben Nevis, whose stupen- 
dous summits I had long contemplated, soaring above his as- 
sociate mountains with an elevation and aspect truly sublime ; 
and on my right the ruins of the ancient Castle of Inverlochy, 
which possess nothing about them worthy of particular notice. 
The entrance of Maryborough adjoining to the fort, has little to 
gratify the eye ; and Loch Eil, and the surrounding mountain 
scenery, is more grand than beautiful. 

Fort William is situate on Lochaber, bordering on the West- 
ern Ocean, yet within the shire of Inverness. It was built in 
the reign of King William and Oueen Mary, being called after 
the name of the King, and was originally designed as a check 
upon the chief of the Camerons, a clan addicted to plunder 
and rebellion. The town was erected into a borough in ho- 
nour of Queen Mary : it is a long street of indifferent houses, 
stuccoed white, and is chiefly inhabited by fishermen, who carry 
on a considerable fishery in the lake. The inn is rather desti- 
tute of accommodation. Nothing can be shabbier, as a fortifi-- 



5247 

cation, than Fort William ; it has neither strength, space, nor 
neatness. It could scarcely stand a siege of two days against a 
company of raw, but resolute, volunteers : the barracks are 
composed of wood, and, having already suffered by time, pro- 
mise at no distant day to be blown away as touch-wood. It is 
garrisoned by a Serjeant's guard. The Government-house is 
very small and incommodious, but r^dered comfortable by its 
neatness, and delightful by the reception which I experienced 
from the officer residing in it, and his lady. The principal 
reason, I was informed, for continuing this military station, (if 
it may be dignified v/ith that appellation,) is to preserve a check 
upon the smligglers in this part of the country. If it be worth 
the expense of preserving, Government would do right to deal 
out repair with a prompt and lavish hand, otherwise they will 
soon have to regret its fall : but within, hospitality found room 
to spread a plentiful table, and elegance to display the most 
agreeable manners. The farce of shutting the gate at the hour 
usual in fortified towns is still pt-eserved in this travesty of .a 
fortification. 

The shattered remains of the flag- staff, wliichj when erected, 
was a very thick mast, bore ample testimony to the teri'ible 
storms of wind which visit this place, particularly near the 
autumnal equinox, when they prevail with such fury, that ves- 
sels are frequently blown from their moorings, between Loch 
Lochy and the sea, a little way from Fort William. The Cale- 
donian Canal commences in this direction, and is carried over 
aqueducts, which are necessary to give a free passage to the 
waters of this mountainous country. The persons concerned 
in this noble undertaking have found that, in stormy seasons, 
the occasional torrents that fall loaded with stones are so for- 
midable, that they have been obliged to enlarge the span of the 
arches, by which means sufficient passages are opened for carts 
and cattle under the canal, and the necessity, which before ex- 
isted, of building bridges for that purpose, will be prevented. 

I was now in the region of raint which descended with little 
intermission, during my stay at Maryborough, with a copious- 
ness which I have not often beheld. Rain, which continues in 
- this neighbourhood for nine or ten weeks together, is called by 
the natives by the gentle name of a shower. Such almost eter- 
nal moisture, no doubt, preserves the verdure of the pasture, 
which otherwise, so thinly scattered as it is on a face of rock, 
would be soon burnt up by the sun. A Highland gentleman, 
who went over to Paris durin? the late momentary peace, mqt a 



248 

friend of his there, who the year before bad been upon a visit 
to him at his Highland chateau near Fort William : after the 
first usual interchange had passed, the Highlander was asked 
by his friend whether the shower which was falling when he left 
him was yet over ; so accustomed are the natives of these parts 
of the Western Highlands, and the Hebrideans, to be under a 
weeping climate, that in all human probability a long series of 
fair weather would produce sickness and despondency. 

Having no hopes, by a protracted stay, of being able to see the 
magnificent view which in a clear day must lie beforethe beholder 
upon the top of Ben Nevis, I contented myself with walking some 
wayup its sides. This mightiest of the mountains in Great Britain 
is four thousand three hundred and seventy feet above the level 
of the sea. From the top, I am informed, in favourable wea- 
ther, the eye can travel from the German to the Atlantic 
Ocean, can command many a Hebridean Isle, and extend al- 
most to the coast of Ireland. When I first saw it, the atmos- 
phere was tolerably clear, and it then appeared to be as ugly in 
shape as it is huge in size. In some of its chasms in its northern 
side, the whiteness of eternal snows are singularly contrasted 
with its vast masses of black and grey rocks. 

Ben Nevis exhibits a very visible and extraordinary appear- 
ance of the triumphs of time over the most stupendous objects. 
It is now evidently part only of a much greater mountain, that 
seems to have included the present one, and two adjoining ones 
of lesser height, presenting now between them two immense 
gullies, from whence it is conjectured that the alluvial deposition 
has probably formed most of the flat land about Fort William : 
this perhaps may account for its uncouth appearance. A great 
part of this vast mountain is fine porphyry, in which the tint of 
the rose is blended with yellow and white : in some parts it is 
green, with a tinge of red and brown. 

Cattle fairs, or rather meetings, are held at Maryborough 
twice a year : these meetings, inspired by Highland integrity, 
are conducted with great liberality, and confidence in the ho- 
nour of the contracting parties : nearly all the great Highland 
farmers are gentlemen of good education and polished man- 
ners. They sell their cattle to English buyers, who purchase 
without seeing the beasts, from a knowledge they have of the 
stock bred upon the farm of the owner : they are sold upon the 
honour of the Scottish proprietor at so much a head, and the 
purchaser sends for them. The cattle are purchased lean, on 
account of the length of the winters and the shortness of the 



249 

summers. Man^ parts of the Highland pasture-land will keep 
thousands of sheep, though incapable of fattening any. I was 
informed also that the Highland farmers never part with their 
lambs, and never kill them but for their own tables. On the 
shores of Loch Ness the ancient Highland breed of sheep are 
frequently found without any mixture. This breed is of a race 
very different from that of the southern provinces : their frame 
is small, and apparently delicate ; their tails are short and taper- 
ing, and thinly covered with strong silvery hairs j their eyes are 
prominent. JSheep and goats are generally reared together ; 
the latter follow the former, and eat up thyme, pennyroyal, and 
other aromatic herbs, which the former will not touch. 

I was not sorry to leave Maryborough, the neighbourhood of 
which Mrs. Grant, in her Letters from the Mountains, has very 
justly described : — " It is a sea-port without being animated ; it 
is a village without the air of peace and simplicity ; it is mili- 
tary without being either gay or bold-looking ; it is country 
without being rural ; it is Highland without being picturesque 
or romantic ; it has plains "without verdure, hills without woods, 
mountains without majesty, and a sky without a Sun — at least 
his beams appear so seldom, that I wonder the Lochabrians are 
not dazzled into idolatry when he walks in his brightness." 

The road from Fort William for a long distance towards Ap- 
pin is very good, and the country very picturesque. I passed 
by several huts, more miserable I think than any I had yet 
seen, which, from the smoke issuing through the roof, and their 
squalid appearance, resembled so many reeking dunghills. As 
I was waiting for the ferry-boat of Balahulis, on the opposite 
shore of Loch Leven, a large group of Highland peasants was 
assembled at the ferry-house, in waiting for their pastor, it be- 
ing Sunday ; so that the house united two rather opposite cha- 
racters, that of inn and chapel : this is by no means an uncom- 
mon case in the Highlands, where the population of a parish is 
so widely scattered ; in fine weather, under these circumstances, 
Divine Worship is performed in the open air. Sometimes 
those ardent devotees are seen crossing shallow rivers upon 
stilts, bearing their parents on their backs to the church on the 
opposite side. 

The lake is about a quarter of a mile across, and a more 
grand and beautiful assemblage of objects than those which are 
presented to the eye in all directions, in crossing this ferry, I 
never beheld. A verbal description, however vivid, would not 
fail to be a very imperfect picture. Soon after I arrived at Bal- 

I i 



230 

ahulis, the rains, which had ceased for a short tiriie, just to un- 
veil to me this romantic and enchanting scenery, descended with 
redoubled copiousness before I could secure my retreat from a 
ramble along the shores of the Leven, amongst some of the 
beautiful glens, which here every where invite the notice of the 
traveller. After waiting with Job-like patience to ascertain if 
the weather would permit me to visit a place in this neighbour- 
hood, much celebrated for its awful gloom and horror, called 
Glencoe, I relinquished the design, and proceeded to Appin- 
house. I was much vexed at the disappointment, for the glen 
was the birth-place of Ossian. The river Coe, at its mouth, is 
the Coia of Ossian : — 

" Their sound was like a thousand streams that meet in Cona's Vale, 
when after a stormy night, they turn their dark eddies between the pale 
light of the raorning."— ■: :— FlNGAL. 

Cona is also frequently celebrated in other parts of his poems. 
This frightful glen was the theatre of a massacre not often pa- 
rallelled, and the recital of which cannot fail to make the mind 
shudder with horror. It appears that many of the sturdy and 
high-spirited chieftains, from an attachment to the fallen for- 
tunes of the Stuarts, submitted to the Act of Settlement in fa- 
vour of King William with reluctance. The Earl of Breadal- 
bane undertook to reconcile the malcontents to this great po- 
litical change •, but, meeting with difficulties in his way, he re- 
solved to be revenged upon those who embarrassed his mission, 
and particularly selected Macdonald of Glencoe, against whom 
he had a private pique, as an object devoted to destruction. Ac- 
cordingly he represented him at court as an incorrigible rebel. 
He told the King that Macdonald had got his Majesty's procla- 
mation, which offered an indemnity to all who had been in 
arms against him, upon submission, and taking the oaths of al- 
legiance, before the expiration of a year, but threatened with 
military execution those who should hold out after the first of 
December. Macdonald refused to take the oaths, alleging that 
the Government had nothing to apprehend from his doing so, 
as he always intended to keep his opinions to himself. At last, 
however, overpowered by the persuasion of his family and 
friends, on the last day of the n,ionth he repaired to Fort Wil- 
liam, and requested of Colonel Hill, the then Governor, to ten- 
der the oath to him, which the Governor declined, on account 
of his not being a magistrate ; upon which Macdonald set off 



251 

for Inverary. He travelled with such swiftness, although the 
snow lay deep upon the ground, that he arrived there within 
one day after the period of indemnity had expired. Sir John 
Campbell, sheriff of the county, in consideration of his disap* 
pointment at Fort William, administered the oaths to him and 
his adherents, and they returned to Glencoe, full of confidence 
in the protection of Government. In consequence of Breadal- 
bane's representations, the King, with the most unfeeling com- 
posure, signed an order for putting about two hundred persons 
out of the protection of the proclamation ; and a warrant to this 
effect was issued to the Master of Stair, Secretary of State for 
Scotland, who sent orders to Livingstone, the Commander-in- 
Chief, to put the unhappy inhabitants of Glencoe to the sword, 
that the rest of the refractory clans might be impressed with 
terror by the example. 

In coBsequence of an order from Major Duncannon, Captain 
Campbell, of Glenlyon, marched at the head of his company 
into the valley of Glencoe, early in the month of February, 
1691, on pretence of levying the arrears of the land-tax and 
hearth-money. Macdonald demanded of the ofHcer the object 
of such a visit, who answered, upon his honour that he meant 
no injury either to him or to his people. In consequence of 
this declaration, Campbell and his soldiers were kindly received 
and treated in the most hospitable manner for fifteen days. At 
length the horrible hour of unsuspected slaughter approached. 
The Lord and Lady of Glencoe, and Campbell and some of 
his officers, spent the day, in the evening playing at cards to- 
gether, and parted early, with mutual expressions of esteem. 
In the course of the evening young Macdonald observed that 
the guards were doubled ; and, from other appearances amongst 
the soldiers, suspected treachery, and communicated his suspi- 
cions to his father, whose confidence in the honour of Campbell 
made him revolt at the idea. The youngman continued firm in 
his opinion, and at nightfall went, accompanied by his brother, 
amongst the soldiers, to make further observations : upon ap- 
proaching a guard, they overheard a centinel express his dislike 
to the meditated business of blood to his comrade, observing, 
that he should have no objection to fight the Macdonalds in the 
field fairly, but that his soul revolted at butchering them in 
cold blood, " However," added he, " our officers are answerable 
for the treachery." Upon hearing this the young men hastened 
back with the intelligence to their father ; but the massacre had 
commenced. Before they reached their house, the voUie&of 



252 

death, and the shrieks of despair, rang through the glen, and, be- 
ing unarmed, they preserved their Hves by flight. The fero- 
cious soldiery entered Macdonald's chamber, and, upon his 
starting up, they shot him through the head, and he fell dead 
in the arms of his astonished wife, who died distracted with 
horror the ensuing day. The huts of the tenants and depen- 
dants were surrounded, and every one within was put to death. 
Thirty-eight persons were butchered in their beds. The 
design was to murder all under seventy years of age, a« 
mounting to about two hundred persons j but some detach- 
ments, happily for the survivors, did not arrive in time to se- 
cure the passes, and, in consequence, one hundred and sixty es- 
caped. 

When these savage assassins had completed the massacre, 
they set fire to the houses, seized all the property they could 
find, and drove the cattle away. The night was vne of the bit- 
terest of the winter ; and, when the day broke upon this hor- 
rible scene, v/omen, who, with their infants, had fied naked 
from the murderers, were found frozen to death with their 
children, under rocks and hedges, at some distance from the 
glen. 

Upon a representation of this barbarous outrage to the King, 
he endeavoured to throw the responsibility from his own head 
upon those who induced him to sign the sanguinary order j but 
as he never punished the perpetrators of the massacre with be- 
coming vigour, it remains an indelible blot upon his charac- 
ter. , 

In this valley, I am told, there is a very extraordinary appear- 
ance, produced by the superinduced stratum of rock on the south 
side, which has not yet been elucidated. There is also a fine 
blue slate quarry, along the banks of Loch Leven, in the road 
to Glencoe. Under a sky of tears, I reached the hospitable 
roof of Appin-house, a seat belonging to the Marquis of Tho- 
mond, and occupied by Colonel Robertson Macdonald, and his 
amiable lady and family, who had recently returned from Cey- 
lon. The situation of the house is elevated, and commands 
a charming view of that great arm of the sea called Loch Linn- 
he, the ruins of a castle, which nearly cover the island upon 
which they stand, the verdant island of Lismore, and the op- 
posite and celebrated mountains of Morven. The plantations 
upon this estate are very extensive ; upon the shores of the lake 
a little way from the house, are some vast globular rocks, well 
worthy of notice. Appin is a miserable-looking place, but the 



23S 

country, as I proceeded to Sheao Ferry, Is well wooded, and 
very beautiful. At this ferry I crossed Loch Creran ; and, a- 
bout four miles afterwards, Loch Etive, at Connell Ferry, 
which, on account of some opposing currents, is attended with 
some difficulty, and occasional danger. Near the road to Con- 
nell Ferry is the site of the celebrated city of Beregonium, once 
the capital of Scotland, and built by King Fergus IL It is sup- 
posed that this city perished in a volcanic eruption, great quanti- 
ties of scorise of different kinds being found in and adjoining to 
the spot. 

From the Ferry to Oban, about four miles, the country, 
which is rocky, is marked by volcanic appearances, which con- 
stantly attracted my notice until I reached the flourishing and 
beautiful little town of Oban. This town, which is concealed 
from the Western Ocean by the island of Kerrara, is finely 
situated for trade and commerce. It has a bay, which is of a 
semicircular form, from twelve to twenty fathoms deep, is capa- 
cious enough to hold five hundred sail of merchantmen, and 
has two entries, one from the south, and the other from the 
north ; it is well protected against the westerly winds, and the 
fury of the Atlantic, by Mull, and other islands before it. On- 
ly a few years since, this town presented nothing but two or 
three houses, amongst which was a store-room built by a trading 
company of Renfrew. The local advantages soon afterwards be- 
came so obvious, that the Duke of Argyle, and other persons 
interested, exerted themselves to promote its prosperity ; but a 
respectable and enterprising individual, of the name of Steven- 
son, and his sons, to one of whom I had a letter of introduc- 
tion, and who settled here in 1778, have most contributed, by 
their spirited undertakings in various branches of traffic, to raise 
it to its present consequence. They principally supply the 
Hebrides in their vicinity with merchandise j they carry on a 
large coasting trade ; deal in meal, kelp, cattle, hides, &c. and 
carry on the business of ship-building. There is no place upon 
the coast of Scotland better adapted, on account of its excel- 
lent harbour and road, than Oban, for a great seaport and fish- 
ing station. 

In times like the present, when we are contending with a 
most subtle and formidable enemy, this place is peculiarly wor- 
thy of the notice of Government, as affording an admirable 
;i;itiiation for a royal dock and arsenal. There is a ready com- 
munication open with Glasgow, by the Clyde, for the convey- 
ance of stores ; Loch Linnhe is navigable to Fort Williani 



254 

which has an easy access with Fort Augustus and Fort George, 
where a considerable body of troops might be lodged, or bar- 
racks might be erected in the neighbourhood of Oban. Ships 
of war and transports might sail for the West Indies or America, 
from the west coast of Scotland, with any wind, at all times of 
the year ; and, if the constitution and the garrulous curiosity 
of the country would admit of it, this coast would be well 
suited for fitting out expeditions which should be really se- 
cret. 

Oban was much enlivened by the expectation of the Duke of 
Argyle who, I found on my arrival, was with a party of friends 
visiting some of the Hebrides. In the neighbourhood of Oban 
there are some beautiful walks, particularly one to Dunolly- 
castle, along the bay of Oban. This castle was once the resi- 
dence of the ancient Scottish Sovereigns ; and an aquatic excur- 
sion to the castle of Dunstaffanage, near Gonnell Ferry, will 
amply remunerate the trouble of reaching it. The remains of 
this castle stand on a bold rocky promontory, jutting into Loch 
Etive. This castle was founded by Ewin, a Pictish Monarch, 
contemporary with Julius C«sar. It is said that, when visiters 
unexpectedly arrive at this castle, and there are not sufficient 
provisions within for their entertainment, an hospitable telegraph 
namely, a table-cloth^ is hoisted upon a pole on the battlements^ 
which is a signal for certain tenants of the proprietor to bring 
supplies of fresh salmon, or any other fish which may be in 
season. 

At Oban I engaged a vessel to carry me over to Mull. 



255 



CHAPTER XXIlI. 

'The Highland character elucidated — Highland sensihiliiy — 'Highland 
haughtiness-— craft — 'fidelity' — shre^vdness — Highlander' s notion of an 
Englishman— Highland honesty-— anecdote— Highland hospitality--' 
courtesy— affection— -affecting anecdote— Highland hardihood—causes 
of Highland ci'vilization-^— Scottish loycdty-— Highland oat h:-— 'Highland 
inns, 

DURING my stay at Oban, the mountaineers whom! 
had just left frequently afforded me matter for reflection, and I 
now submit to my readers the result of my observations, and 
the information which 1 derived with regard to their national 
character. Although, from all that I could learn, it appears 
that the distinguishing features of the Highland character are 
vanishing away, and blending with that of their southern and 
eastern neighbours, yet much still remains to arrest the atten- 
tion and gratify the curiosity of the tourist. In the early his- 
tory of the Highlanders a most romantic sensibility was one fea- 
ture in their national character. The following undoubted 
anecdote, amongst many others that might be produced, will il- 
lustrate the remark : — When the Macleans of Loch Buy posses- 
sed in sovereignty the south side of the island of Mull, the chase 
afforded them both food and recreation. On a day when a great 
hunt was intended to be given by the chief of the clari, he or- 
dered one of his attendants, named Gore, or Godfrey, to stand 
at a certain pass, and not to permit a stag to escape in that di- 
rection, on peril of losing his life. In the chase some deer 
forced their way by him, notwithstanding every precaution, and 
the haughty and enraged chief, instead of putting him to death 
convened his clan, and ignominiously chastised him on the sum- 
rait of a peak ; pierced to the heart by a sense of the disgrace, 
the oppressed Highlander immediately afterwards seized the 
child of the chief from the arms of its nurse, who was standing 
amongst the clan, and leaped from the peak with the infant in 
his grasp, with whom he alighted in safety upon a rock below. 
The distracted father looked down with terror upon his child, 
and implored the Highlander to restore it, offering him forgive- 
ness, rewards, and honours, for his compliance. Gore declared 
that he would not make ud his mind until the chief had endured 



the same disgraceful chastisement which had been inflicted upon 
him. The chief submitted, and was scourged within his view, 
and then again implored to have his child 5 upon which Gore, 
with a ghastly grin and shout of exultation, precipitated himself 
with the infant from the rock where he stood to a dreadful 
depth below, and both were instantly destroyed. 

The authority which these chieftains once possessed is almost 
incredible ; and as it is the nature of power to corrupt, it fre- 
quently imparted an uncommon degree of sternness and severity 
to the character of him who possessed it. Many of the chiefs 
in distant periods, were regarded with superstitious veneration, 
and were as absolute as any of the Princes of the East, and fre- 
c^uently displayed a power not a little terrible to those who cal- 
led it into action. It is related, that soon after the accession of 
Queen Ann, when Pnnce George of Denmark, her husband, 
was Lord High Admiral of England, some Scots gentlemen re- 
presented to him that Scotland could furnish the navy with as 
good timber for masts, and other naval uses, as Sweden or 
Norway, and at more reasonable prices j upon which two sur- 
veyors were despatched to ascertain the truth of the represen- 
tation. At Edinburgh they procured a letter of introduction to 
a great chieftain, in a remote part of the Highlands, to forward 
their commission. Upon their arrival at his house they announ- 
ced their object, and produced the warrant and instructions from 
his Royal Highness. After dehberately perusing them, the 
chieftain observed that he knew nothing of such a person. The 
surveyors informed him that he was the husband of Queen 
Ann ; upon which he replied, *' / also know nothing of her ,- but 
there came hither, some time ago, such as you, from Ireland, 
as spies upon the country, and we hear they have made their 
jests upon us amongst the Irish. Now you shall have one hour 
to give a better account of yourselves than you have yet given ; 
and, if you fail, I will have you hanged upon that tree," point- 
ing to one adjoining ; a menace which his attendants seemed 
perfectly disposed to execute. In this dilemma the chieftain 
left them, without having seen the letter of introduction from 
their friend at Edinburgh, which the surveyors thought would 
not be noticed after the treatment which the royal mandate had 
experienced. However, after they had paced up and down the 
garden for some time, seeing death at every turn before them, 
they conceived they might as well produce the letter of intro- 
duction, which, after some difficulty, as the hour was on the 
point of expiration, they discovered, and presented to the 



257 

haughty Laird, who, after perusing it, observed, " Why did 
you not give me this at first ? If you had not produced it, I 
would have hanged you both immediately." Upon which he 
courteously led them into his house, gave them refreshment, 
and granted them permission to make a survey of his woods the 
next morning. 

The very ancient Highlanders were distinguished for many 
noble virtues as long as they had Sovereigns of .their own. In 
the year 845, Kenneth M' Alpine, having subdued the Pictish 
kingdom, transferred thither the seat of government, and the 
country in consequence fell into anarchy and confusion, and 
hence arose all those evils which disgraced it ; quarrels became 
hereditary, and plunder the order oF the day. Of this the fol- 
lowing anecdotes will afford a tolerable picture : — When one 
of the M'Donald's of Lochaber came down to visit a chief, cal- 
led Culloden, who resided near Inverness, he admired the 
number and beauty of his cattle, upon which Culloden expressed 
his apprehensions that he should not have pasture sufficient for 
them during the winter, when M'Donald, who sharply eyed the 
cattle, told him, with much apparent courtesy, that he could ac- 
commodate him, as his pasture v/as abundant ; accordingly they 
agreed for so much a head, and the cattle was driven to the 
lands. About two months afterwards a herdsman of M*Do- 
nald's arrived at Culloden's and told him, with a sorrowful face, 
" that his chief was in great trouble on account of Culloden's 
cattle having been all stolen and driven away." Culloden, it 
appears, shrewdly understood the real meaning of this, and, 
without betraying his feelings, ordered that the herdsman should 
be treated with the greatest hospitality. After a day or two the 
fellow offered to take his departure, when Culloden asked him 
if he had been treated to his heart's content, and, without say- 
ing a word about the cattle, gave him money, and dismissed 
him. When the herdsman returned he went to his chief and 
said, " The man must have his cattle again." M*Donald was 
astonished, remonstrated, and refused to Comply ; the man 
threatened him with expense, upon which he was obliged to 
submit ; the cattle were restored, with a polite message from 
M'Donald that he rejoiced in having been able to overtake and 
rescue the cattle, which he had returned. 

In the same rude period a spirit for plunder entitled the fe- 
lonious hero to the admiration of the female sex. It is related 
that a Highland woman, when begging alms of a lady, was 
asked how many husbands she had to which she repHed *'T/:ree" 

K k 



25S 

snd being asked if they had been kind to her, she said 
the two first were honest men, and very careful of their fa- 
milies, for thty both died fcr the Jaiv., and were hanged for 
theft j but as for the last, she said, " he was a fihhy peast — 
he died at hame, Hke an auld dog, on a puckle o' straw." 

Of the fideUty of the ancient as well as the modern High- 
landers many impressive instances could be produced. A friend 
of mine favoured me with the following anecdote, which, I think 
places that exalted quality in a fine point of view : — In the bat- 
tle of Glenshiels, in the rebellion of 1719, a gentleman fought 
at the head of a company of Highlanders, raised from his fa- 
ther's clan, and fell, dangerously wounded in the thigh by a par- 
ty of rebel Highlanders, who continued firing upon him, after 
he was down, from the declivity of a mountain j conceiving 
that his death was inevitable, he ordered a faithful servant, who 
was fighting by his side, to consult his safety, and retire, as he 
could not protect him against so many, and requested him 
to report to his father that he had not disgraced his clan ; 
upon which the poor fellow burst into tears, and told his 
master that he never would leave him in that condition, and 
immediately threw himself over his body, and covered him 
from the fire of the enemy, in which position he received 
several wounds, until the rebels were dislodged by a party 
which came up to the relief of the gallant sufferers. 

The present Highlanders appear to unite sentiment to serious 
habit ", they are inquisitive, thoughtful, and intelligent, and 
they have a sort of melancholy sensibility, tempered with much 
natural courtesy, which renders them highly interesting. Their 
noble form and pensive mind finely correspond with the wild 
and sublime scenery in which they m.ove. This may perhaps 
have aided in forming that part of their character. In the 
course of my Highland rambles I had frequent intercourse with 
the natives who spoke English, and I was always surprised to 
find the great intellectual curiosity which the Highlanders dis- 
played in their inquiries after our own manners and customs : 
they have frequently walked by the side of my carriage, or of 
my horse, for miles together, during which i had many a shrewd 
interrogatory propounded to me. 

In talking of the English, they always spoke of us as a separate 
people. An old Highlander once told an English gentleman 
that the expedition to Ferrol would certainly fail, as there were 
so mznv foreigners engaged in it. " Foreigners !" exclaimed the 



25-9 

gentleman, " what do- you mean ?" " Why, there are only 
Englishers and Irishers employed," replied the Scotchman. 

1 was also much struck with the natural ease perfectly free 
from vulgarity, as well as the social turn of these people. I saw 
an unaffected dignity of deportment, which I should think 
splendour could not dazzle into that mean sheepishness and 
conscious inferiority frequently observeable in the peasantry of 
other countries. A Highland farmer presents to me the figure 
of a Roman one. The Highlander seems to n:aeasure man by a 
noble standard. When you look at his face and form, you will 
naturally say, " Nothing sordid or selfish can be cherished there." 
Lord Moira, in an affecting speech upon the interests of Ireland, 
eloquently observed, <' That that man walked safely who walked 
uprightly, as he who moved in the Grotto del Cano, by carrying 
himself erect, avoided the deadly atmosphere which clung to 
The earth below, and destroyed the baser animal that crawled." 
Thus it is with the Highlander : in the midst of poverty and 
privation, such as the south never exhibits, he is, by a power- 
ful moral sense, more than by reflection and education, preser- 
ved from mean and unworthy actions. 

Although in a rude period the Highlanders had no very coi-- 
rect notions of the sanctity of property, many are the instances 
which might be adduced of Highland integrity, which grew 
with the growth of civilization. The following little anecdote 
will shew how widely the uprightness of the Highlander is res- 
pected : — Whilst Corsica was in our possession, the butler who 
had the care of the Governor's plate, upon fetes, and gi-eat 
public occasions, used to request that some of the men without 
breeches, meaning some soldiers of a Scottish regiment on service 
in the island, might have the charge of it during the entertain- 
ments. 

In battle the Highlanders have repeatedly covered themselves 
with glory in various parts of the world. They are temperate ; 
and society is so thinly and widely dispersed, that they have sel- 
dom an opportunity of assembling to indulge in gratifications 
that are violent to sobriety. Their hospitality, as well as that of 
the Scottish peasants in general, is a subject of merited admi- 
ration ; they have but little to offer, but what they have they 
cheerfully give j it is generally an Arcadian banquet of milk and 
cream, and oaten cake. This noble quality their exquisite Poet, 
Burns, has celebrated with epigrammatic point :— « 



260 

«' when Death's dark stream I ferry o er, 

(A time that surely shall come)j 
In Heav'n itself I'll ask no more 

Than just a Highland welcome."" 

I was much pleased to find that hospitality in the Highiar-ds 
had assumed an appearance of high civilization. Amongst the 
Highland gentlemen I was never pressed to drink more than 
was perfectly agreeable to me, although formerly drinking was 
carried to such an excess, that in the house of a chieftain two 
servants were always in v/aiting to take up those who dropped 
from their seats through intoxication, when they were convey- 
ed to their beds in a chair constructed for the purpose with 
poles. 

It is a curious circumstance, that, notwithstanding the natural 
external gravity, or rather pensiveness of the Highlander, his 
spirit is alive to the sounds of joy when festive merriment invites. 
They are extremely fond of diversions of all sorts,^ of dancing, 
and of music, at the sound of which their countenance begins 
to brighten. In this respect they resemble the Russians. Al- 
most every piece of social labour is alleviated by singing ; on 
the banks of rivers the women employed in washing, sing as 
they rub their linen in the passing stream ; the boatmen, 
as they row, keep time with their oars to some lively or 
pensive strain j and the reapers sing as they cut down the 
Corn. 

It is well known that the Highlanders are remarkably delicate 
towards their women ; and that, in matrimonial life, their fideli- 
ty and attachment cannot be surpassed. A custom exists amongst 
the Highland ladies, which strongly reminded me of the same 
class of females in France. When a stranger has been visiting 
a family, and is about to take leave of his hospitable friends, a 
young lady of the Highlands will offer her hand at parting, and 
sometimes present her cheek, glistening with a tear of uncon- 
cealed regret. Such conduct is completely consistent with deli- 
cacy ; it flows from unaffected innocence ; it means nothing 
but kindness, and the libertine could not mistake it. I was for- 
tunate in experiencing this artless and cordial attention more 
than once. 

The Highlanders are remarkable for their filial affection and 
obedience. An undutiful son or daughter, in the Highlands, 
is ranked amongst those who blemish human nature. To show 
to what extremity this submission to parental will is occasionally 



261 

capfied, I lay before my reader the following affecting instance, 
which occurred a few years since : — An English lady, who was 
travelling in a solitary part of the Highlands, remarked an old 
woman, dressed in black, sitting upon a stone, by the road side, 
and weeping. The lady directed her guide to go to her, and 
inquire who she was ; he accordingly asked her for some account 
of herself. After a conversation which lasted some time, he 
informed the lady that the poor woman was very unhappy, and 
had good cause to be so, for she had an only son, who enlisted 
in the army against her will, though she suppressed her feelings 
that he might follow his inclinations : that soon afterwards he 
obtained a furlough, and came back to her, when, from excess 
of fondness, she would not allow him to leave her, though the 
time appointed for his return had expired. His commanding- 
officer sent a message to him, ordering him to return ; he still 
remained with his mother: another and peremptory order fol- 
lowed : it was alike disregarded. At length a file of soldiers 
was despatched to the cottage, to seize him as a deserter. When 
with anguish in his heart, he was preparing to submit, his mo- 
ther called out, " What, Sandy, will you spare your blood up- 
on your enemies ?" The youth, wrought up almost to phrenzy 
by the horror of bis situation and this appeal, seized his musket 
and discharged it at his comrades, upon which they fired, and 
jjhot him instantly dead. When the story was finished, the lady 
went up to console this venerable object of her sympathy, upon 
which she just raised her grey head, and sobbed, " My beautiful 
my brave !" an exclamation which she had borrowed from the 
play of Douglas, and which so closely applied to her feel- 
ings. 

After such a trait it is scarcely necessary to observe, that to 
extend support and comfort to the declining age of a parent, 
is a duty the most sacred, the observance of which forms a 
peculiar feature of the character of a Scotchman. When a 
Highland youth emigrates or enlists, a portion of the savings 
of his prosperity or pay is always allotted to his_ parents, if he 
has any, or to some poor relative ; he never turns his back up- 
on his poor relations, when, with young Norval, he might ex^ 
^laim :— ' 

'< Once on the cold and winter-shaded side 
Of a bleak hill, mischance had rooted me, 
Ne'Jer to thrive, child of another soil 1 
Transplanted now to thegay sunny vale. 
Like the green thsrn of May, my fortune flowers." 



262 

The hardihood of the Highlander is almost proverbial. He 
attributes his health to the keenness of the air and the want of 
doctors. The Highlanders are accustomed to derive comfort 
from vy^hat vrould, in all probability, occasion death to other 
men. It is well known that, in cold dry windy weather, when 
these mountaineers are obliged to sleep amongst the hills to at- 
tend their cattle, they soak their plaid in a burne or brook, in 
which having rolled themselves, they select a spot of heath upon 
the leeward side of some hill for their bed, where they are 
kept quite warm by the wet, which prevents the wind from pe- 
netrating the stuff. The following whimsical characteristic 
anecdote is recorded to have happened in the Highlands many 
years since : — A hardy chieftain, when stretching himself out to 
,sleep by the side of a hill, after a long day's hunt, observed that 
his son, a young man of twenty, had collected a quantity of 
snow for a pillow, on v;hich he was preparing to lay his head, 
when his sturdy father severely reproached him, and would 
not suffer him to enjoy such a luxury. 

A general disregard of the luxuries of the table is to be enu- 
merated as peculiar to Highland manners. From the Highland 
gentleman, when enjoying his sporting pleasures, a bad dinner 
draws forth no expressions of regret, and a good one none of 
admiration. The voluntary sufferance of privation seems to 
constitute one of the evidences of manhood. But, though ca- 
pable of this sort of forbearance whenever it becomes necessary, 
he is not disposed to try the philosophy of his visiters or family 
in the same manner. The Highland table is always plenteous- 
ly, and frequently elegantly, covered. The Scotch, as I have 
before remarked, have a passion for trying their fortunes in 
other countries, and, when they have succeeded, are desirous 
of purchasing property near the place of their nativity, and 
spending the remainder of their days there, in consequence of 
which foreign habits and luxuries are inevitably introduced, and 
the voluptuousness of Asia is not unfrequently seen in these re- 
mote regions of the north. 

Society in the Highlands has for many years experienced a 
gradual amelioration. In a distant period the soldiers of Crom- 
well taught many of the useful arts of life to the East and North 
Highlands, amongst whom they were garrisoned -, and during 
those turbulent times, when a romantic attachment to an ex- 
patriated family, deservedly expelled from the throne, brought 
war and desolation in its train, the progress of civilization was 
accelerated bv th*? intercourse and communion which followed 



26S 

between the conquerors and the natives of the country whicii 
they overrun, and also by the quantity of money which was 
circulated by means of the troops. 

In other instances good has resulted out of evil. About the 
year 1746, the Border Country, on the verge of the Low Coun- 
try, became infested by a lawless band of depredators, chiefly 
from Lochaber and the remoter parts of the Highlands, whose 
fortunes had been ruined by the events of 174<5. They fre- 
quently made incursions upon the inhabitants of the Low Coun- 
try, and retired in safety with their booty into the wild and al- 
most inaccessible retreats within the Border. This system of 
plunder and forced contribution was carried on for some time, 
in open defiance of the military stationed at a small distance 
from their haunts. At length the bold, active, and enterprising 
exertions of Mr. Nicol Graham, of Gartmore, and other gen- 
tlemen, in conjunction with the operations of General Church- 
ill, the then Commander-in-Chief in Scotland, and the law- 
officers of the crown, succeeded in bringing these desperadoes 
to subjection. This event was of essential service to the coun- 
try, as it led the government into a more intimate acquaintance 
with that part of Scotland. The judicious and salutary man- 
ner in which the rents of the forfeited estates were applied in 
the improvement of the country ', the act of l74'8, which de- 
stroyed the despotic power of clanship, and abolished the feu- 
dal jurisdictions, by which the vassal is restored to the rights 
and immunities enjoyed by his fellow- subjects in the south, and 
is no longer forced to follow his chieftain to a ferocious contest, 
to which he was instigated neither by personal provocation nor 
immediate or remote advantage ; the blessings of a regular po- 
lice ; the construction of the military roads through the High- 
lands, opening to easy and uninterrupted Intercourse vast dis- 
tricts that were once inaccessible to each other ; and the benign 
labours of the Society for the Propagation of Christian Know- 
ledge ; the exaggerated accounts of Dr. Johnson, which, flow- 
ing from the proud and unbending prejudice of a high au- 
thority, attracted the attention of the world to the condition of 
the north ; the emigration of so many families, which alarmed 
the government, and taught the rich to attend more to the 
comfortable employment -of the poor at home •, t-ie periodical 
visits of the gay and the opulent from the south, In pursuit of 
game or pleasure ; the valuable elucidation of the coasts •, the 
careful soundings of the channels j an indefatigable attention to 
the fisheries; the increa?ed demand for help ; the various socle- 



264 

ties which have made the amelioration of the condition of the 
Highlanders the object of their noble zeal ; — all these, and 
other and minor circumstances, in conjunction with the moral 
and national qualities of the people, have effected a change in 
their local character, which, I am informed, is truly astonishing 
to those who have the power of comparing what the High- 
landers are, with what they were a few years since. 

The Highlanders, after the rebeUion, for a long time were 
prevented, by a severe, but perhaps necessary, provision of the 
legislature, from wearing arms. This painful badge of dis- 
loyalty has been wisely removed by an act to repeal the statute 
which imposed the deprivation. Indeed his Majesty has not 
now to learn, that he could not place arms in the hands of any 
of his subjects more disposed to use them with intrepidity in 
the cause of loyalty. For the Scotch it may be said, that 

*' Their swords are a thousand, their bosoms but one." 

It is generally believed that the Highlanders still preserve 
some vestiges of juridical forms peculiar to themselves, parti- 
cularly with regard to the administration of an oath. Before 
the Union, a Highlander, upon his being sworn, did not kiss 
the Bible ; but, holding up his right hand, repeated, " By 
God himself, and as I shall answer to God at the great day, I 
shall speak the truth. If I do not, may I never thrive while 
I live ; may I go to hell, and be damned, when I die ! May 
my land neither bear grass nor corn; may my wife and bairns 
never prosper ! May my cows, calves, sheep, and lambs, all 
perish !" &;c. 

A Highlander, offering to appear as a witness against a de- 
linquent, previously to his examination before a magistrate, 
was tendered the Low-Country oath, which, in consequence of 
his showing an eagerness to take, induced the magistrate to sus- 
pect that he was a Highlander, and suborned, upon which he 
changed his proceeding, and tendered him the Highland oath, 
when the man objected to swear at all, observing, that " Thar 
is a hautle o' difference betwixt blawing on a buke, and dam'ing 
one's saul." This particular form has long been abolished, and 
only one form of oath now obtains in the courts of law in Scot- 
land, viz. " I swear by Almighty God, and as I shall answer 
to God at the great day of judgment, I will tell the truth, the 
whole truth, and nothing but the truth, as far as I know and 
shall be asked in this cause." 



265 

Formerly, when one clan went out to fight against another, a 
tune was played, which imported " To conquer or die," and all 
those who rallied were considered to be under a pledge equal 
to an oath. 

With respect to the trades in the Highlands being hereditary 
by parental cofe'rcion, as far as I could learn no such coercion 
exists ; and the same remark will apply with regard to religion. 
The trade of the father is frequently and generally followed by 
one of his sons, if he has more than one, as is often the case 
in England, from the influence of example and early direc- 
tion. 

The inns in the Highlands are much improved since Dr. 
Johnson's tour amongst them. Boswell mentions that they 
scarcely ever had bed-sheets. I was at many of these resting- 
places, and almost always had them, though not disposed at all 
times to enter them. 



CHAPTER XXIV. 

Highland dress, ancient- and modern — piety of ancient chieftains-— dry 
clothes in ivet iveather — a foolish laiv repealed — Highland gentlemen^ s 
houses— anecdote— establishment of ancient chieftains— anecdote of a 
Haunchman — second sight — Dr. Johnson — <witches — animal magne- 
tism—divine revelation — glamour t or bad sight— superstition — a vil- 
lage seer— Highland emigration — Old Highland farmers — Highland 
grazing— recruiting' service in the Highlands— Highlands adapted to 
manufactures. 

THE Highland dress is very manly and graceful, though 
it appears to be declining ; when I expected to have seen it 
entire, I found it yielding, as it were piecemeal, to the habili- 
ments of the south. Few gentlemen, except when they are 
sporting or farming, wear the kilt ; the belted plaid is scarcely 
ever worn. The Scottish bonnet is also disappearing. It ap- 
pears by history that the hat, and not the blue bonnet, used 
formerly to be the fashionable covering of the heads of the 

L I 



266 

men, In an ancient ballad, commemorating the loss of several 
Scottish nobles in th6 Forth, in an expedition on which they 
were sent out in stormy weather, under Sir Patrick Spence, 
there is this verse :— 

" O Our Scots nobles wer richtlaith 

To weet their cork-heil'd schoone j 
But lang owie a' the play wer playM 

Their hats they swam aboone." 

About eighty years since, a Highland gentleman was seen 
n^ithout shoes, stockings, or breeches, in a short coat with a 
skirt, that just peeped below it, and scarcely concealed what 
decency seldom exposes in any country, although in his family 
he had daughters arrived at womanhood ; at present, in the 
same rank of life, the greatest decorum of dress is observed. 
The undress of the gentlemen is generally a short coat of tar- 
tan, and trowsers of the same stuff. The females of respecta- 
bility dress precisely as our ladies do. The dress of the com- 
mon people of both sexes, in most parts o^ the Highlands, is 
made of a thin coarse wboUen cloth, which they make and die 
of indigo colour blue. The men generally wear waistcoats and 
sometimes trowsers of the same stuff, or cloth, and beaver hats. 
They also frequiently have a plaid in folds, part girt round the 
waist, to form a sort of short petticoat to reach half-way down 
the thighs, and the rest thrown over the shoulder, and fastened 
below the neck. Brogues and short tartan stockings are also 
much used. The very poor wear what are called mire-pipes, 
or stockings without feet, called also, in some parts of Scotland, 
buggers. 

The women generally wear a petticoat and a sort of bedgown 
of the same stuff, and a cursche, or white mob cap, or a hand- 
kerchief thrown over the head, and tied under the chin. The 
married women wear lappits, and the unmarried have their hair 
turned up, and fastened with a comb j they wear no caps. The 
Highland dress of a chieftain is now seldom presented to the 
eye, unless in the islands on a Sunday, or in a family pic- 
ture. 

The most ancient dress of a Highland chief consisted of hel- 
met, coat of mail, shield, and broad sword, named in the 
Gaelic language thus, viz. : — 



267 



1. Gloachadah, - - Helmet | 

2. Terradhairm, - - Coat of Mai! 5 

3. Sheadh,agns, - - Shield ; and 
4.. Claibhmore, . - - Broad Sword. 

The more recent dress was called Claibh-agus, Breachkan 
onaeile, which implies the complete suit of tartan dress, in- 
cluding the belted plaid, pheilybeg or kelt, bonnet, dirk (com- 
plete, with knives and forksj) a pair of pistols, purse, broad 
sword, &c. &c. Upon every occasion, in times of old, when 
a chief summoned his vassals and clan to the hall of his castle, 
he uniformly girt himself in his war-dress, and, so far as oral 
tradition can be depended upon, the Highland chiefs uniformly 
dressed themselves in their complete Highland garb when they 
went to church. This they made a point of doing from a 
sense of duty; and they often vied with each other in making 
great donations for the building of churches, abbeys, monas- 
teries, &c. An instance of this we find recorded, nvhere it ap- 
pears that Reginald, Lord (commonly called King) of the Isles, ' 
about the latter end of the eleventh century, not only lavished 
great sums of money in building churches and monasteries 
within his own territories, but extended his munificence to the 
Monastery of Paisley, to which he gave the lands of Caskiming, 
Arran, &c. This powerful chieftain was contemporary with 
William the Lion, and his son, King Alexander the Second, 
but acknowledged no allegiance to either of these Princes. 
Donald, Lord, or. King, of the Isles, son of Reginald, and 
grandson of Somerlede, King of the Isles and Thane of Argyll, 
also imitated the liberalil;y of his family in making donations to 
the chprch, especially to Paisley, Kilkerran, now Campbeltoui 
the Monastery of Saddle, in Kinlyre, &c. &c. This custom 
was regularly handed down in the family of Macdonald until 
within a very late period. Thus the Monastery of Carinish, in 
XJist, was built by Reginald of Clanranald, at a great expense. 
Many of his successors followed his example, and made several 
donations, especially to the Cathedral of. lona, or Icolm- 
kill. 

To return to the plaid. The colours of the plaid harmonise 
so well with the russet and heathy colours of the Highland 
mountains, that they much facilitate the Highlander in the de- 
struction of game. 

It cannot fail to strike a stranger with surprise that a dress so 
thin, and easily penetrated by rain and wind, should be used in 



263 

a region which is seldom visited with either dry or waroi 
Weather. Here, as in the north of Europe, the human frame 
becomes indurated by exposure to all weathers, and clothing but 
an inferior and secondary consideration. The Norwegian suf- 
fers the snow to settle on his naked breast, and freeze there ; 
and the Russian generally trusts to his beard to save his throat 
from the cold, in a season and a climate in which, if water be 
thrown up into the air, it falls down in ice. So inured to, and 
so careless of rain, are the Highlanders, that it is related, that 
when an Englishman was walking with a Highland peasant, a 
violent stprm overtook them, upon which the former buttoned 
his coat, and fastened the plaid which he had borrowed round 
him, whilst the latter stripped himself naked, and seated him- 
self upon his tartan dress, which he had formed into a bundle, 
and, in this manner, very contentedly waited until the rain 
Was over, when he laughed at his companion on account of his 
clothes being wet, whilst his own, by this hardy contrivance, 
were dry. 

After the rebellion, a barbarous and mistaken policy induced 
the English government to pass a law, rendering it highly 
penal in a Highlander to be seen in the dress of his forefathers. 
This decree redoubled his attachment to it ; and although he 
endured the humiliating prohibition with manly resignation, he 
felt his spirits revive when a great chieftain of his own country, 
the present Duke of Montrose, procured the repeal of a law 
at once severe and senseless. 

Feminine delicacy has been sufficiently accustomed, even in 
the south, to contemplate the kilt, or short petticoat, of the 
Highlander, without a shock, and I am therefore heartily glad 
that he is restored to his semi-nakedness, by which he is enabled 
to spring over his mountains with perfect ease, and is no longer 
restrained within the rigid bounds of southern breeches. Some 
whinisical lines in honour of the noble orator who so ably and 
successfully pleaded the cause of the kilt appeared about the 
jjieriod of this august restoration 5 I believe they are in that 
witty collection of poems called the Rolliad : — 

*' Each breeze that blows upon those brawny parts 
Shall wake thy lov'd remembrance in their hearts ; 
And whilst they freshen by the northern blast. 
So long thy honour, name, and praise, shall last." 



269 

The domestic arrangements of the Highland gentlemen must 
have been materially changed for the better since the period 
when Johnson and Boswell wandered through their country. 
Boswell mentions that, in a house which they visited, the bell 
in the room where the guests were carousing over the punch- 
bowl having been broken, a smart lad lay on a table in the cor- 
ner of a room, ready to spring up, and bring the kettle when- 
ever it was wanted. I do not think that at present such an ar- 
rangement would be made. The attendance was civilized and 
good in every respectable house which I entered, although there 
were no bells, a circumstance not very unusual in the High- 
lands, and other parts of Scotland. Boswell's story reminds 
me of one something similar, which occurred a short time be-- 
fore I was in Ireland. In the north of that country, a gentle- 
man of considerable fortune, but not over attentive to the com- 
forts of his house, had invited a party of friends to dine with 
him at his shooting-box. In the morning he was Informed that 
one of the leaves of the only dinner-table in the house was bro- 
ken. Instead of sending for a carpenter, and getting It re- 
paired, he hit upon a project for making it perform its duty 
without that trouble. After the guests had been seated some 
time, and were enjoying their dinner, a little wild Irish boy 
sprung from under the table, exclaiming, " By Jasus, I can 
bear it no longer !" and immediately the luckless leaf, and all the 
dishes committed to Its support, fell with a terrible crash on the 
floor. 

The ancient chieftains must have exhibited much barbarous 
splendour in their household establishments. Whenever a 
chief undertook a journey, he used to be attended by the fol- 
lowing officers and servants :-— 

The Hauncliman. 
Bard. 
Piper. 

Piper's Gilly, who carried the pipe. 
Bladier ; the spokesman. 
Gillimore ; broad-sword bearer, 'i 

Gilly-casflue j to carry the chieftain, when on foot, over the fords. 
Gilly-comstraine ; leader of his horse in rough and dangerous ways. 
Gilly-trushanarich J baggage-man. 

The haunchmany who preceded the rest, was the secretary, or 
conjSdential humble friend, of the chief: his name is is derived 
from its having been the principal part of his office to stand 



2-;:o 

near the haunch of his master, when he gave entertainments, 
to attend to the conversation, and ascertain if any thing was 
uttered that could be oftensive to him. Many years since, at 
one of these banquets, an officer of this description, conceiving 
that an Enghsh officer, whose language he did not understand, 
from some look or gesture was uttering expressions disrespectful 
to his master, without the slightest previous representation of 
his suspicions snapped his pistol at him, which luckily missed 
fire, and enabled him by an explanation to understand that what 
he mistook for disrespect was mere energy of manner. Of 
this establishment, I believe, no part remains but the piper. 

In various parts of the Highlands, I endeavoured by frequent 
inquiry to ascertain whether any old crazy or crafty man or wo- 
man possessed the superhuman faculty of second sights and whe- 
ther mental imbecility continued to prolong the folly of its de- 
lusion. Had not Dr. Johnson given an indirect sanction to the 
existence of this prophetic power, I could scarcely have pre- 
served my gravity as I proceeded in my investigation. The 
genius and the judgment of that profound moralist raised him 
far above the highest, whilst his weaknesses and prejudices con- 
nected him with the very humblest, of his own species. That 
his mind was under the gloomy influence of superstition no one 
can doubt. He avowed that he believed in the evidence cf se- 
cond sight, and therefore he must have believed in second sight 
itself, although he has endeavoured to soften the fact by the 
expression- Considering how much we are all under the in- 
fluence of external causes, it cannot be a subject of surprise that 
the savage solitary glen, the magnifying mist, the gloom of 
treeless mountains, the deep cavern, the rugged rock, the roar 
of winds and waters, and every other awful and sublime attri- 
bute of Highland scenery, should cast a shade of horror over 
the mind of the ignorant native, and sometimes render him 
the dupe of melancholy and extravagant fancies. In such a 
region I can easily conceive that gloomy visionaries would not 
be wanting, who, with the Wizard of Campbell, might pre- 
tend 

" Tis the sunset of life gives me mystical lore, 
" And coming events cast their shadowos before j" 

and that, with the assistance of dreams, disturbed by indigestion 
or by dejection of spirits, they might think they had heard 
portentous death-shrieks, had seen funerals in the clouds, and 



271 

counted the number of the bearers ; or, with less emotion, 
prpgnosticated the colour of a Kew servant's livery. 

Others might make a display of this pretended power, with- 
out this disordered imagination, for the artful purpose of ad- 
vancing some sinister object, or from the vanity of being con- 
sidered the seer of the village. This marvellous faculty, it 
seems, was not confined to adults. The story runs, that even 
children, and horses and cows, enjoyed its dignity, and im- 
parted its illuminations. That the Great Disposer of all things 
should delegate the power of prescience to the low and the 
illiterate, and deny it to the enlightened, that it should irradi- 
ate the gloom of desolation, but never shine in the scenes of 
refinement and civilization, are extraordinary preferences 
which the learned Doctor has not attempted to expound and re- 
concile. That pretensions to second sight are the fruits of im- 
posture, or of a morbid melancholy, is tolerably plain, when it 
is considered that so far back as 1720 this pretended faculty be- 
gan to lose its ground, and that it has continued to retreat as 
civilization and social intercourse have advanced, until it has at 
length been nearly driven out of all its fastnesses. We con- 
template the weakness of the learned tourist, and of the untu- 
tored mountaineer with different emotions ; the latter has apo- 
logies of residence and mind j and let it be remembered, that, 
in the south, the 17th century had far advanced before the reigH 
of witchcraft was over, during which it was thoroughly beheved 
amongst other equally ridiculous characteristics of a witch, that 
she could not weep more than three tears, and these only out of 
the left eye ; and that this execrable infatuation had before that 
period been countenanced and solemnly defended by a king and 
a philosopher, by James I, and by Bacon. The witches, thank 
Heaven ! for fancy never formed them with attraction, have for 
some time mounted their broomsticks, and disappeared ; and no 
sensible person is now to be found who believes that they ever 
existed. Yet the season of infatuation scarcely seems to be 
over. All and more than the folly of sorcery and second sight 
was but a few years since revived with renovated vigour in the 
pretended efficacy of animal magnetism. I remember, when a 
boy, listening with astonishment to the marvellous accounts 
with which one of its principal professors was indulging a large 
party. He gravely told us that, by an inspiring movement of 
the hand, he could enable any one distinctly to describe the 
colours of four kittens concealed in a bag ; that he could im- 
pregnate ashes with medicinal virtue ; and that he could raise 



2Y2 

the hand of any one from the table, without touching it ; up- 
on which I resolved to put his last privilege to the test, ahd ac- 
cordingly extended my hand upon the table before us, and de- 
fied his power ; when he made the following singular reply :•— 
«' I cannot at present, raise your hand ; I am interdicted from 
doing it, for some months, by the prince of the power of the air." 
This man occupied a respectable rank in life, and in all other 
instances was highly enlightened. — To return to the subject of 
second sight, I more than once excited a look of contempt 
for making any inquiry about it : and I do not believe that 
there is a Scotchman, in the least degree enlightened, who 
now believes that such a faculty ever existed in his country. 

A pretension to Divine Revelation, and of course a credulity 
in it amongst some, will be found to have existed by the fol- 
lowing whimsical anecdote ; — "^ Previously to the secession of 
those people known by the appellation of Seceders from the 
Kirk of Scotland, because its tenets and discipline did not ap- 
pear to them sufficiently rigid, one Erskine, a clergyman, who 
took a very active part in promoting that secession, held a living 
in the county of Fife. On the one hand was a parish called 
Auchcertool, the emoluments of which were small j and on the 
other a parish where they were uncommonly large. A vacancy 
having happened in the more valuable living, Erskine applied 
for it with success. Having always professed an extraordinary 
degree of sanctity, and a contempt for the good things of this 
world, he was charged with inconsistency by a poor woman of 
his parish, known by the familiar appellation of Tibby. But, 
as he had been a mighty pretender to Divine Revelations, and 
supernatural calls and visions, he excused himself by saying that 
the Lord had given him a call to go to the more profitable 
parish. " That may be. Sir," replied Tibby, " but gin the 
Lord had gi'en ye a call to gang to Auchtertool, ye would ne'er 
let out on ye heard him." 

Second sight and glamour, that is, good and bad sight, 
seemed to have perished one after the other. Glamour means 
a magic power of making an object appear to the eye different 
from its reality. The high and the low, the brave and the ti- 
mid, at one time believed in this superhuman privilege. That 
many instances of superstitious credulity are still to be met with 
in the Highlands is not doubted ; amongst others, a piece of 
mountain-ash is thought by many of the common people of 
Scotland to be a charm against certain disorders, and mothers 
frequently fold a bit of it in the gowns of their children 



273 

A confidence more worthy of aa intellectual mind is dis- 
played in the reverence which is paid to the wisdom of age. 

In every hamlet, some aged peasant, distinguished for his 
experience and superior knowledge of the seasons and of rural 
economy, is invested, by tacit consent, with high authority, 
and is," by way of pre-eminence, called "^ Dmahy or the 
Man." 

In the first feelings of his humanity, a traveller in the West- 
ern Highlands, as he wanders along the shores of vast lakes, at 
the foot of mighty mountains, whose summits are covered with 
mist, and whose sides are every where gashed by the winter 
torrent, or in the gloom of glens, will feel a secret awe amid, 
the frequent silence of the scene. A total stranger to its history 
might at first be induced to exclaim *< What war, or what 
contagion, has depopulated these solitudes ?" Such were my 
earliest emotions in travelling through these regions, where 
many a mile have I traversed without seeing a human being, or 
hearing any other sounds than those of the solitary shepherd's 
horn, or of distant waterfalls. The subject led me inta a train 
of reflection and inquiry, the result of which satisfied me that 
the sadness with which I contemplated suth a spectacle was 
greatly misplaced. 

The appearance which the natives of the Western Highlands 
present, gloomy as it is, will be found to be the natural conse- 
quence of the progress of improvement. Population has ever 
been thinly scattered in these mountainous districts ; and Nature 
seems to have formed them more with a view to the pasturage 
of cattle than for the operations of the mere cultivators of the 
earth. When a wise police had broken down the feudal sove- 
reignty with which the Highland chieftain had been invested 
for ages, the proprietors of land began to turn their attention to 
the improvement of their estates ; and as the proportion of land, 
capable of tillage was very small, the country became divided 
into vast grazing farms. As the Highland Lords felt their aUf- 
thority decline at home, many of them naturally travelled a- 
broad, and mingled with the people of the south ; estates were 
let at advanced rents, and, in letting, a few wealthy tenants 
who could aflFord to give them the largest rents, and offered the 
best security for their regular payment, were preferred to a 
number of poor ones, whose payments would have been some- 
times precarious, frequently difficult, and always additionally 
expensive in the collection. A great number of peasants found, 
ihemgelves suddenly obliged either to change their habits, which 

M m 



274 

had been almost pastoral, for those of manufacture, or to emi- 
grate to another country, where they conceived they could con- 
tinue their accustomed modes of existence. Thousands braved 
the miseries and perils of a long voyage, and sought retreats in 
the wilds of America. The Legislature became alarmed at this 
spirit of emigration, which in time began to cure itself. As 
many found that they had nearly perished in the wilderness be- 
fore they could enter the land flowing with milk and honey ; 
and, notwithstanding many seductive accounts of Trans-atlantic 
prosperity were regularly transmitted to those who remained in 
their native vales, for the purpose of inducing them to join those 
who had departed, some narratives not very flattering to their 
hopes and fortunes were received, which operated to damp the 
ardour of emigration. Notwithstanding those drains, it is a fact 
at once curious and important, which has been accurately ascer- 
tained by legislative and statistical reports, that, in those dis- 
tricts where emigrations have been most frequent, the inhabi- 
tants are more numerous now than they were before such emi- 
grations. Those who resisted the infatuation of trusting their 
little fortunes and their hopes to the winds and waves, but were 
dispossessed of their small portions of ground, have been obliged 
to find employment in the manufactories of Glasgow and Pais- 
ley, in the Caledonian Canal and other works, by which they 
acquire habits of active industry, their minds become more ex- 
panded, they are better able to maintain their families, and they 
have added more to the stock of wealth and industry elsewhere, 
than they have withdrawn from their native spot by their re- 
moval -, those too who are permitted to rent small farms will 
become better farmers by their intercourse with the new takers, 
and more disposed to exert their energies in consequence of the 
imposition of adequate rents, the prudent raising of which has 
been productive of beneficial effects. Agricultural improve- 
ment must also necessarily follow the experimental farming 
which is practised by a number of Highland gentlemen, who, 
having by their talents made large fortunes abroad, return to the 
place which gave them birth, to spend in ease and happiness 
the produce of their spirit and enterprise. 

Formerly the Highlander thought every occupation but that 
of fighting in the ranks of his clan, hunting, sometimes plough- 
ing, at others reposing upon a sunny bank, cultivating his pas- 
sion for music, or refreshing his memory with the songs of the 
Bards, derogatory to his dignity. The masculine employments 
of the farm devolved to the women, which, as it gave them a 



.1275 

certain degree of independence and of consideration with the 
other sex, they were content to endure, However, upwards of 
twenty years have rolled away since the occupations of the farm 
were thus unsuitably divided, and a more sensible and natural 
sj^stem has followed, by which the women of the Highlands are 
more confined to the discharge of those duties which peculiar- 
ly belong. to their sex. 

The Highland pasturage is better adapted for sheep than black 
cattle, because the latter can seldom collect above one-third of 
the herbage which sheep can ; and it is v^ell known that, for 
every pound of beef which a Highlander sends to market, a 
shepherd will send three pounds of mutton. The number of 
sheep fed upon these mountains is almost incredible ; and as 
they can be pastured where the plough would be unavailing, 
the policy of no longer rearing them in fertile arable land, kept 
in grass in England, must be immediately felt, and speedily fol- 
lowed. 

The Highlands have been considered as a nursery for soldiers, 
and it has been thought that the recruiting service will inevita- 
bly suffer by the changes which have taken place in their rural 
economy. But this, it appears, is far from being the case. At 
Glasgow and in other towns, and along the shores where fish- 
eries are established, the same hardy loyal race will still be found. 
The population of the Highlands is dispersed, not diminished ; 
and the Highlanders thus scattered are of more use to the com- 
munity and to themselves than if they remained in the uninter- 
rupted indulgence of their ancient habits. For this honourable 
advantage a mere local name and character ought to be gladly 
exchanged. If, in certain parishes of Caithness, the recruiting 
officer is not able to enrol as many in the service of the empire 
as before, he may supply the deficiency at Paisley, and its neigh- 
bourhood. 

By the following official return, it appears that the recruiting 
service has not suffered by the rural changes which have taken 
place in the Highlands : — 

Number of men raised in Scotland under the Army of Reserve Act, 
from its commencement in July 1803, till its repeal in June 1S04, 5635 

Under the Additional Force Act, from the commencement, 5th 
September, 1804, to the 26th December, 1804. 158 

To 27th December, 1805 88i 

To the repeal of the Act, (June, 1806.) 62a 

1661 



216 

Py the recruiting districts, ii) the ordinary way of recrirt'ng. 
From the 3d J4sy to 31st December,' 1805 30° 

From the ist January to 31st December,' 1806 887 

to 31st December, 1S07 1326 

— 2510 

I was informed in the Highlands that that degrading and ini= 
politic system of cotters and servitudes, something like the duty 
work in Ireland, is daily decreasing, and day-labourers are every 
Where multiplying. Notwithstanding the failure of a vast and 
highly patriotic manufactory for spinning and weaving cottonj 
■which was established a iFew years since in the Firth of Dornoch, 
for the laudable purpose of endeavouring to ascertain how far 
the genius of the people and the nature of the place were pro- 
pitious to such an establishment, many persons well informed 
upon Highland matters are still disposed to think, that in time 
that country may become the seat of manufactures to a conside- 
rable extent. It has, by those who are unfavot^rable to this 
opinion, been thought that Highlancl manufacture must be con- 
fined to the preparing and spinning of wool for the clothing 
countries. On the other hand, it has been ascertained that the 
soil and climate are well adapted for the growing of flax, and 
several lineh-mariufactures are now in a tolerably flourishing 
condition in some of the Grampian districts ; it is thought too 
that hemp might be raised, and rope-manufactures established, 
equal to the supplying the fisheries with all their cordage. It 
has also been properly inferred, that, if spinning- were establish- 
ed, weaving, dying, arid dressing the cloth, would soon follow. 
The turf in the Highlands, is generally good, and, on account of 
the numerous artns of the sea which every where penetrate 
their shores, coal may be carried coastways, or conveyed into 
the interior by the roacis which have been already formed and 
are now constructing. "Wonderful discoveries have been with- 
in a few ^rears made in the power and application of steamj by 
which the consutriptioti of fuel in manufactories is so amazingly 
reduced, as to be now, in large manufacturing houses, of very 
little consideration. All these circumstances unite to make us 
hope that the day is not far distant, when, iiisteaci of the High- 
lands being chiefly inhabited by the shepherd and his flocks, as 
some have predicted — ^'is'hilst the sideS of mountains are covered 
with cattle in the summer, and improved 'agriculture provides 
green food for them in the winter and the spring— the vallies 
shall contain enterprising agriculturists and successful manufao- 
turers, . . , . , 



277 



CHAPTER XXV 

^aii front Oban— ^Itinerant merckants-~-a Mull equipage— ^itaMmering po~ 
flies'^— Morveu'— Mull roa^s—^arri'val at Ulva—gates-^Ul'va-house— 
apiper—'anecdQte—-mmual hoatmen-^idand of Staffa-'^biihop of Der- 
ryand herdiman-'-'Ioria, 

AT Oban I engaged a large boat, with two men and sails 
to carry me to Aros, in the Sound of Mull, a little voyage of 
about thirty-five miles, for a guinea and a half. As Oban is the 
great disembarking port for Mull, Staffa, and Icomkill, let me 
recommend the Hebridean tourist to carry with him changes o£ 
clothes, linen, and boots. I mention this, because it is general- 
ly thought that nothing is more easy than to accomplish the sur- 
vey of these islands in two or three days, vrhereas it is frequent- 
ly an undertaking, and a very arduous one, of ten days or a 
fortnight, if the wind and weather prove unfavourable, and they 
are rarely propitious. 

I permitted two itinerant dealers in merchandise for the is- 
lands to go over with me. As it occurred in Scotland, I was not 
surprised to overhear them beguiling the voyage by literary dis- 
cussions, and by seeing one of them take out a pocket Virgils, 
which he appeared to relish very highly. The chapmen who 
thus visit these insulated and remote countries find ample return 
for their merchandise, and, in a national view, are of no little 
consequence in accelerating the progress of civilization. The 
Romans considered the travelling merchants, who frequented 
the barbarous countries which had submitted to their arms, as 
of censiderable importance in gradually familiarizing those coun- 
tries to the conveniences, and, in consequence, to the improved 
manners, of cultivated life. These erratic merchants are also, 
from their intercourse with the people of different districts, na- 
turally well informed, and versed in the ways of the world, and 
consequently cannot fail of imparting some portion of their in- 
tellectual superiority, in the course of their dealings, to those 
who have not had similar advantages of travel and expanded 
communication. 

As we withdrew from Oban, and got fairly out to sea, the bay, 
the town, the ruins of Dunolly-castle, the mountains behind, 
the verdant island of Lismore, and other islands, and the ship- 



278 

ping, formed a picturesque view altogether enchanting : the 
wind soon failed, and afterwards freshened against us ; the 
evening vi^as far advanced ; and as the prospect of being all 
night at sea in an undecked boat, without provisions, was not 
very agreeable, it was deemed most prudent to put into Achna- 
craig, in the south-east side of the island of Mull, and nearly 
opposite to Oban : here, in a small bay, were several ships ri- 
ding at anchor, bound for the Baltic ; and I could not help 
thinking what an immense tract of ocean they would save were 
the Caledonian Canal open to receive them. 

About a mile up the island I was conducted to a very com- 
fortable inn, kept by a very civil and respectable woman, who 
spoke Gaelic and good English ; she informed me that the visit 
of the Duke of Argyle had diffused uncommon joy all over the 
island. I was fortunate in the following day, which was very 
fair y and I shall long reflect upon the delight which I felt in, 
contemplating from an adjoining eminence the beautiful Archi- 
pelago of this western region, through which I had sailed the 
evening before. My hostess procured me two ponies, after a 
long search for them on the neighbouring hills, from which 
they descended as rough and as wild as if they had never seen 
the face of man before. The Mull ponies, however, are thought 
valuable. The date of my saddle vs'ould have puzzled an anti- 
quary to have ascertained, and its hardness and asperity seemed 
to have increased with its age ; however, I was fortunate in 
procuring this much-valued rarity, as I found that a large fresh 
sod is generally used as an ingenious substitute : the rest of my 
tackling was composed of fragments of cord, hay, and leather. 
My guide, who spoke a little English, was a good-humoured 
peasant, and appeared to be considered as a man of distin- 
guished genius by the group which had collected at the door 
of the inn to witness this grand set-out, on account of his ha- 
ving, after several ineffectual devices, succeeded in fixing my 
portmanteau on the beast destined to carry it, which he did by 
tying two great stones together at one end of the cord, which 
was fastened to my. baggage at the other, the middle resting 
upon the pony's back, who had thus the pleasure of carrying a 
double burden. Having accomplished this difficult arrange- 
ment, he himself mounted, to " keep the balance true." Thus 
equipped, we set off for Aros, and to my cost I found that the 
good MuUites have about as correct a notion of distance as they 
have of making bits, bridles, and saddles. My hostess assured 
me that Aros was only nine miles off} and what induced me to 



279 

conceive that she meant English miles was, that she accompa- 
nied it by another assurance, that I should reach it in two hours 
and a half ; whereas the distance proved to be, at least, twenty 
English miles, and I did not reach it in less than six hours. 

The appearance of the island for the first two or three miles 
was rendered picturesque and romantic by rocks, and groups of 
weeping birch, young oak, alder, and mountain ash, happily 
and not penuriously scattered along the road, which is tolerably 
good all the way to Aros, so much so, that carts pass from Ach- 
nacraig to that place, and to Tobermorry ; and once, for a 
wager, a carriage was transported from the main land, and run 
upon this road, which I think might have been accomplished 
without much difficulty. After passing a few corn-fields, and a 
neat farm, the grounds about which are well wooded, my 
guide's pony began to stammer under his burden, that is, in vul- 
gar Scotch, to stumble, which threw all my baggage in disorder. 
It would have taken an hour to replace it, had not the accident 
fortunately happened opposite to a cottage, out of the window 
of which a handsome healthy girl was looking, who, seeing the 
accident, accommodated my La Fleur with a pair of creels, or 
panniers, in one of which the portmanteau was deposited, 
whilst a great part of his weight was sustained in the other. 
This hut, like almost every other which I saw on the island, 
was very wretched : it was built of round stones, or large peb- 
bles, without cement, and the door was composed of rude 
wicker-work. The thatch was fern, and kept together by ropes 
of heath, at the ends of which stones were fastened, which 
hung down the sides of the cottage. Upon turning the eastern 
point, I bade adieu to every vestige of foliage ; but, as some com- 
pensation, the Sound of Mull opened in great majesty, resem- 
bling a vast lake, enlivened with vessels ; on the opposite side 
arose the gloomy hills of Morven ; and upon a point of rock 
projecting into the Sound stood the remains of an ancient 
castle. I was now in the neighbourhood of the heroes of Os- 
sian, the solemn, but simple, scenery of which, afforded his 
melancholy imagination a sublime, but undiversified, imagery. 
In the authenticity of the poems of this Bard a strong belief has 
been expressed by some able writers on the subject. 

The face of Morven must have been much changed since the 
time that Ossian wrote. In his poem of Carthon he thus de- 
scribes it ;-— 



280 

'*' How stately art thou, Son of the Sea > sa'id the King of the ivoedj 
Morven. 

And again, In the same poem, a isimilar epithet occurs : " Bard 
of tjie woody Morxen :" whereas its sides, all the v/ay along the 
shores of the Sound of Mull, appeared to be completely de- 
nuded. Near Ardtorinish, on this side of Morven, are the 
original " Hall of Shells, and the woody streamy Vale of Sel- 
roa. 

The road continued nearly parallel with the Sound. After 
passing two or three miserable hamlets, the habitations of which 
resembled the description of the Balagans of Kamtschatka, I 
halted at the ruins of an ancient church, upon a commanding 
eminence, about fourteen miles from the inn. As I stfood ru- 
minating amongst the tombs, and turning my eye occasionally 
from them to a hoary sightless islander, who sat upon one of 
them, and from him to the expanded scenery around, lighted 
up by a brilliant sun, Ossian's address to that great luminarj^;, 
one of the most sublime passages in all his poems, forcibly re-- 
curred to my mind. 

At last I approached the ruins of the Castle of Aros, stand- 
ing upon a steep rock towards the sea, and said to have been 
erected by Macdonald, Lord of the Isles. Aros, in Erse, sig- 
nifies the mansion or habitation, and is applicable, to the resi- 
dence, of any family of distinction. Mr. Maxwell, who is the 
Duke of Argy|e's man of business in this island, has a com- 
fortable house here, where I was afterwards hospitably enter- 
tained. Wishing to reach Ulva that night, I immediately pro- 
ceeded to the inn, which, small and commodious, was crowded 
%vith visiters to the isles. There I dismissed my Achnacraig 
guide and ponies, and, with difficulty, procured a little refresh- 
ment, a jaded half-starved horse, and a little boy for a conduc- 
tor 5 with these I set off to cross the island of Mull for that of 
Ulva, again assured that it was only three miles off, although 
it proved to be between eight and nine. 

I now bade adieu to every vestige of tolerable road, and en- 
tered upon a track, which only the horses of the country could 
traverse without a fracture. Occasional bogs, shelving rocks, full 
of large deep holes, and vast stones, characterised its course j 
but these apparently perilous impediments, from the great ex- 
perience and care of my beast in dragging one leg most cau- 
tiously after the other, proved only to be vexatious obstructions, 
A crowded churchyard could not have presented more hillocks 



281 

than these roads, which are called coarse ground. The Duke of 
Argyle, when he visited these uncouth parts, promised to have 
a road constructed in this direction ; when executed, future 
travellers, with cheerful gratitude, will unite the memory of his 
Grace to that of General Wade^ Along the northern margin 
of Loch Nakeall, I passed several little farms, on which there 
appeared to be very good barley and oats growing. Being a 
little near-Slighted, I could not easily distinguish the houses from 
the earth. The island is twenty-five miles long, and about the 
same in breadth. A great number of black cattle are here an- 
nually reared and exported. There are two established mar- 
kets for them, held at Whitsuntide and Michaelmas, each of 
which continues four days \ beides which there is an annual 
horse-fair held on the 15th of August, to which many persons 
from Ireland repair to purchase Mull ponies. There are also 
a considerable number of large red deer. 

It was " darkness visible" by the time I arrived at the end of 
my journey, and had sat myself down upon a basaltic causeway, 
as far as I could judge by the glimmering of a few stars, opposite 
the ferry of Ulva, midst the sounds of distant waterfalls and 
the waves of the Atlantic Ocean, patiently waiting for the boat, 
and lost in astonishment with thinking by what marvellous pro- 
tection I had reached the spot without the dislocation of my 
limbs. At last the boat arrived, and, after passing over about a 
quarter of a mile of sea, I reached the inn, a very humble one, 
and the only one on the island, standing close to its rocky 
shore, in which some jolly peasants were assembled to dance and 
drink whisky. My host, a Macdonald, told me I had been ex- 
pected at Ulva-house, the mansion of the Laird, Ranald Mac- 
donald, Esq. who, agreeably to Highland etiquette and distinc- 
tion, is called StafFa, in consequence of that celebrated island 
belonging to him. However, as the night was advanced, I re- 
solved to stay there till the morning ; and as I was at supper, 
the merry peasants below, with the courteousness nat^ral to 
their character, sent up to tell me, that, if their dancing dis- 
turbed me, they would dance no more ; to which I could send 
no other answer, but to beg that, if it so pleased them, they 
would dance till the dawn of day. 

The next morning alForded me a tolerable specimen of the 
Hebridean climate ; it rained heavily, and the wind freshened 
to a gale. As I was informed that such weather is usual in the 
islands nine months out of the twelve, and as fair days in these 
regions can only be expected in the early part of the summer 

N n 



4f- 
282 

I made up my mind to a separation from the beams of the sim 
during my stay in the island, and in this comfortable expecta- 
tion was not for one minute disappointed. At the same inn 

was an elegant and accomplished foreigner, the Baron , an 

officer in our service, whose philosophical ardour, after several 
ineffectual trials, at last enabled him to accomplish a visit to the 
island of Staffa, and to return to Oban, after a very unexpected 
absence of many days, and two or three miserable, and some- 
what perilous, voyages in an open boat. 

The Laird's house was about half a mile frot^ the inn. The 
gates here, as in the island of Mull, are such as one might sup- 
pose had been constructed by Robinson Crusoe, or rather by 
his sable servant, Friday. The hinges are two curved sticks, 
let into a wall, supporting the gate, than which nothing can be 
more rude and uneouth ; and locks and keys are also frequent= 
!y constructed of wood. A blacksmith is a personage of no 
little consequence in those islands ; although, in distant times, 
smelting and working of iron appear to have been well under- 
stood and exercised, not only in the islands, but all over the 
Highlands. Staffa's House is a comfortable and commodious 
mansion j indeed a splendid palace, compared with the wretched 
huts within its neighbourhood. I here found a cordial welcome, 
and a family at once amiable and refined. The mind dwells with 
equal pleasure and surprise upon meeting, as I met with in this 
small remote island, cut off from the world, and just rearing its 
head amidst the war of v/inds and waves, a well-bred and accom- 
plished gentleman, who, having visited the polished and luxu» 
rious scenes of southern Europe, is still sufficiently attached to 
these rugged rocks, and to his peasantry, almost antediluvian in 
mind and manners, to pass a considerable portion of the year 
with them. The many who have experienced the hospitalities 
of Staffa, in a spot where hospitality appears in all its value, and 
the pleasures of his society, will cordially unite with me in pay- 
ing this little tribute of admiration to his character. At break- 
fast, and after dinner, Staffa, I suppose out of compliment to 
his tenantry, was attended by his piper. This surviving mem- 
ber of Highland feudality used to strut before the window with 
great solemnity, and in a dress extremely handsome. In allu- 
sion to the pace which is common to the fraternity, it is usual, 
in the Highlands, to compare the motion of any one who walks 
proudly to " the stately step of the piper." I was informed 
that one of these barbarous musicians, attempting, in a fit of 
enthusiasm, to pipe over eighteen miles of ground, blew his 



283 

breath out of his body. It would have been well if he had 
been the last of the race. A piper in the Highlands, some few 
years since, asked an English nobleman, who was conversing 
with him, what was the age of his piper j and upon learning 
from the Peer that he had no piper, he spoke of him after- 
wards with great contempt. In Staffa's House the table was 
plentiful and elegant ; but the family, as they intended to pass 
the winter there, were a little anxious for the arrival of a ves- 
sel with a variety of necessaries and stores, none of which they 
could procure in the island. One of the young ladies of the 
family had the Christian name of Flora added to the surname 
of Macdonald, after the distinguished female of that^ name, 
who was so celebrated in the annals of the Pretender ; and I 
was shewn, with that amiable respect which is ever paid to illus- 
trious misfortune, a plate, from which Prince Charles used to 
eat when he was under the care of his generous protectress. 
For several days, during which fresh arrivals reached the hos- 
pitable roof of Ulva-house, on their way to the islands of Staffa, 
and lona, it never ceased to rain but for a few minutes, which-j 
without displaying even a sickly sunbeam, just enabled me to 
ascertain, that, from the elevated parts of the island, Inchken- 
neth, and otherneighbouring islands, the sea, the vast cliffs of 
Gribun, the towering mountain of Benmore, and the cascades 
that whiten the dark sides of the opposite cliffs, must, on a 
clear day, present a grand, but, after all, a gloomy prospect. 
The house has a tolerably-sized garden belonging to it, in 
which some vegetables and little fruit grow j the walls are not 
high, and scarcely a tree can raise its head above them with im- 
punity. Staffa has indulged in a romantic spirit of planting, in 
such a soil, and in so exposed a situation, the experiment is not 
likely to succeed, but it is worth trying. It wiU be a great and 
gratifying novelty to hear tourists, in distant times, speak of the 
woody XJlva, The extraordinary custom called mercheta mu- 
lierum is said to exist exclusively in this island. It is the right 
which the Laird has of violating the seventh commandment 
with his tenant's wife on her wedding-night. Staffa, very good- 
humouredly, and, I believe, very honestly, assured me he had 
never exercised his privilege since he had been in possession of 
the estate. His predecessor used to commute the right for a fat- 
wether. This extraordinary privilege existed in many other 
parts of Scotland until abolished by Malcolm III. 

We had now been waiting for several days, anxious for a lit- 
tle forbearance of the clouds to enable us to reach the islands of 



2^4 

StafFa and lona : at last the incessant shower lessened to a Scot - 
tish mist ; Staffa ordered his barge to be manned ; and thinking, 
according to the Scottish adage, " Bode a gown if gowd, and 
ye'U aye get the sUeve of it," that is, " Try, and you will get 
something of what you try for," and that, if we could not reach 
the islands both of Staffa and lona, We might reach one of them, 
we embarked with the piper, who sat at the head of the boat, 
and played some merry and mournful tunes, but which I could 
not ascertain, as we committed ourselves to the ocean ; when he 
ceased, the strokesman of our rowers commenced a spirited 
Gaelic song, the chorus of which ended with " Hatyin, foam ! 
foam, Hatyin, foam ! foam, foam, Hatyin, foam ! foam, eri!" 
in which the principal singer introduced some peculiarly shrill 
notes, beating time very smartly with his hand upon the oar, 
and producing a brisk and agreeable effect ; this had such in- 
fluence upon his comrades, that, to borrow a marine expression 
<* we flew through the water," and with great velocity passed 
Inchkenneth, which I shall mention hereafter, the black basal- 
tic rocks of Ulva, and the Cave of Mackinnow, which time and 
the weather would not admit of our reaching. After between 
three and four hours of hard and incessant rowing, we reached 
one of the great objects of our voyage, and landed on Staffa. 
The waves were too boisterous to admit of our entering the 
cave of Fingal by water, which we reached after viewing the 
Sihip Cavef so called from the basaltic columns being curved, 
and resembling the ribs of a ship. Having before seen the 
Giant's Causeway, where Nature has been working with the 
same, but with more slender and beautiful materials, I saw no- 
thing which was new till I suddenly reached the entrance of 
Fingal's Cave ; the impression which it produced on me and 
others was such as only sublimity and novelty could have ef- 
fected. A spacious causeway leads to the hall, which is 237 
feet long and 117 high ; the columns increase in magnitude to- 
wards its entrance. Within were regular ranges of pillar, les- 
sening towards the end, which is solid rock ; above is a massy 
roof of rock, to which the tops of broken columns adhere; 
and below the sea rolled and roared, as it broke against and 
climbed up the rocky termination, with the noise of thun- 
der. 

Sir Joseph Banks has given a fine description of this cave. 
The name of this wonderful place is descriptive of its nature. 
Staffa is a word of Norwegian origin, meaning staff, or colurtin. 



285 

From the entrance of this sublime chamber, which, from the 
dusky hue of its pillars, seemed to be hung with mourning, we 
could distinctly see lona. It is a curious circumstance that the 
tops of the columns in the roof are in a line with the stumps at 
the bottom, which Hne the sides of the cave ; it is tair, therefore 
to presume that each of these heads and bottoms belongedto one 
column, and that there were many columnar fragments under 
the water, deeply buried in sand. Close to Staffa, to the east, 
is the little island of Booshala, curiously composed of columns 
inclined in various directions. How much is it to be regretted 
that Dr. fohnson had it not in his power to visit these islands. 
Formerly a shepherd and his family used to reside in the island 
of StafFa, to look after a few heads of cattle, which must have 
been a miserable banishment, for the island is not more than 
three quarters of a mile long, and half a mile broad, and is a 
mass of basalt and lava. When the Bishop of Derry visited 
this island so«ie years since, upon his entering the Cave of Fin- 
gal, he was so solemnly impressed with its sublimity, that he 
fell on his knees and prayed. He afterwards requested a High- 
land gentleman, who accompanied him, to ask, in Gaelic, 

*' The shepherd of the Ilebride Isles, 
Plac'd far amid the melancholy main," 

what he most wanted ? to which the poor herdsman, with 
great simplicity and moderation, said, « A razor and some soap." 
The Bishop ordered him three razors, several pounds of soap, 
and gave him a purse of ten guineas, which made the poor fel- 
low pity and despise the rest of the world, till his presents wete 
worn out and expended. As a proof of the great mildness of 
the climate of these Hebridean Isles, the Laird of Staffa gene- 
rally puts fifty head of cattle, in November of every year, on 
this island, where they have nothing but grass, and without any 
shepherd, and in May he finds them fat and fit for sale. Upon 
this island we were joined by a party of Oxonians, who proved 
to be very pleasant and enlightened men. We had scarcely sa- 
tisfied our curiosity in exploring this rude but sublime cathedral 
of nature before the weather began to thicken, and the wind to 
freshen in a direction that determined our hospitable host, to 
whom the navigation of these seas is familiar, not to venture up- 
on extending our voyage to lona, which we reluctantly gave up, 
although all the accounts we have of it concur in describing it as 
a spot better adatpted for the mind than the eye, and abounding- 



286 

snore with matter for meditation than with interesting objects. 
The sublime eulogy pronounced upon this island by Johnson was 
adverted to as we lay upon our oars, at first dubious as to our 
course, when we quitted the island of Staffa. 

Two of our party had been at lona a short time before with 
the Duke of Argyle, whose presience produced almost as great 
a sensation as if St. Columba, attended by St. Patrick and St. 
Bridget, had arisen from his tomb, to revisit this his favourite 
island. His Grace is the great chieftain of the place, and during 
a century it had never been so honoured. All the population 
crowded to the shore when the Duke and his party landed, to 
whpm they offered some of the finest pebbles found on the 
island, many of which are very beautiful. The tombs of the 
Scottish and Irish Kings had been cleaned of their superincum- 
bent loads of cattle-dung, and duly washed and scrubbed. The 
schoolmaster, the greatest personage upon the island, had 
*« wasted the midnight oil" in preparing a speech with which to 
address the Duke ; but, alas ! like many an unpractised orator 
when the long-looked for opportunity arrived, the powers of 
his memory melted away, and he stood in a state of pale and 
trembling stupefaction. The men and women, in fine white 
mob caps, and without shoes or stockings, danced an lona fan- 
dango before the Duke, whilst the children pressed forward to 
touch his coat. Although Dr. Johnson has as much contributed 
to the immortality of the fame of lona by his pen as St. Colum- 
ba by his piety, the memory of the sage is not popular amongst 
the natives. 



28^ 



CHAPTER XXVI-. 

A delwuian dinner— ^jisherisi-^kdp-^kelp-tenants — -remarks an lettin'^ 
lands to kelp'tenants—on agricultural impro'uemsnts- — on the population 
of the Hebrides-— ad'vanta^es of primogeniture— Hebri dean 'volunteers-'—' 
food and happiness of the Hehrideans-— querns and corn-fnills'—'Hehri' 
dean piety'-='HKiolves~-ga>ne--"Coal, 

WE dined, on our return to Ulva, in the boatj under 
such a deluge, that my plate overflowed with rain-water as I 
extended it for some refreshment. Our repast consisted of an 
excellent collation, and various and the best wines, of which we 
drank so bountifully, but not intemperately, that in a short timej 
from their influence, and the general good humour of the par- 
ty, we began to think even kindly of the weather. Our poor 
boatmen and piper were plyed with what they loved next to 
life, copious quantities of whisky, animated by which, and their 
wild Gaelic songs, they pulled us back with Herculean vigour to 
the spot where we embarked, within an hour after a stormy 
darkness had settled upon the face of this part of the At- 
lantic. 

It is to be lamented that the fisheries in the Hebrides, aad on 
the whole western and north-western coast of Scotland, and in 
particular the herring-fishery, so important to the state, should 
for many years past have been, in a manner, monopolized by 
the bounty, or bush, men, to the great prejudice of the inte- 
rests of the native fisher. No encouragement of any kind or 
description whatever has hitherto been held out, either by go- 
vernment or individuals, to any inhabitant of the western coast 
or islands to embark in the fisheries, with the exception of a 
slight bounty, called the barrel bounty, and to obtain which 
there are so many excise-forms necessary to go through, that the 
poor fisherman generally gives up the whole bounty to the of- 
ficer of the custom-house when he comes to brand his barrels j 
by which means the returns of the fisherman's toil and enter- 
prise are greatly reduced. The fisheries which were some time 
since established at Lochfine, by Lachlan Mac Lachlan, Esq. of 
Mac Lachlan, at Castle Lachlan, iii Stath Lachlavv, as also those 
at Tobermorry, with laudable perseverance continue their ope- 
!^^tions \ but without some alteration or mitigation of the penal- 



288 

ties contained in many of the clauses in the acts of jiarliament 
relative to the salt-laws, it is not likely that these fisheries or 
any others can ever become a source of permanent national 
wealth. Indeed it would fill a tolerably-sized volume to enume- 
rate the grievances which the fisheries sustain in consequence 
of the many involved, intricate, and unintelligible clauses in 
the salt-laws now existing, and by which the fisheries are at- 
tempted to be regulated : I shall merely remark, that it is not 
by any means the duties of which the fishermen have to com- 
plain, but the rigid interpretation which the petty officers of 
excise (commonly called gaugers) think proper to put upon 
some of the clauses contained in these statutes, and the great 
rigour with which they carry them into execution j hence the 
more illiterate of the fishermen frequently suffer by such sever- 
ity and their own ignorance. Notwithstanding these impedi- 
ments, StafFa, to his honour, has bestowed unceasing zeal and 
ardour in encouraging his tenants in the islands of StafFa and 
Mull to embark in fisheries, and his exertions have been on se- 
veral occasions attended with great success. Owing to the un- 
certainty of the visits of the herrings, and their equally uncer- 
tain duration, StafFa, by close observation and experience, has 
seen the sound policy of blending the occupations of farming and 
fishing, which do not interfere with each other, and which 
cause a certain supply of sustenance. 

Whilst the fisheries in the Hebrides labour under such impo- 
litic restraints, the natives find considerable employ and profit 
from the manufacture of kelp, which was introduced from Ire- 
land between fifty and sixty years since, and has become a va- 
luable source of income to the proprietors. Kelp is the calcined 
ashes of a marine plant of that name, and is used in the manu- 
facture of glass and soap ; it grows on the rocks and shores of 
the Hebrides and Highlands. After it is cut or collected, it is 
exposed to the sun and wind ; and before its moisture is ex- 
haled, it is placed in troughs, or hollows, dug in the ground, 
about six feet long and two or three broad : round its margin 
1$ laid a row of stones, on which the sea-weed is placed, and 
set on fire within ; and, in consequence of continual supplies of 
this fuel, there is in the centre a perpetual flame, from which a 
liquid like melted metal drops into the hollow beneath, and 
when full, it is, in a state of fusion, raked about with long iron 
rakes. Great nicety is required to move the weed whilst it is 
burning, and to keep it free from dirt. When cool it conso- 
lidates into a heavy dark-coloured alkaline substance, whicl^ 



289 

undergoes in the glass-houses a second vitrification, and assumes 
a perfect transparency. 

The reasons'why kelp manufactured, which it is done, but in 
very small quantities, along the eastern shores of Scotland, is not 
reckoned so valuable as that on the western coast, are two ; first, 
that it is generally manufactured from cast or thrown-in sea-ware 
or wrack j and, secondly, that the natives have not yet ac- 
quired the same knowledge of the modes of preparing it for 
burning, &c. as the kelp-tenants on the west and north-west 
coasts, amongst whom, owing to the great quantity annually 
manufactured, it is pretty much reduced to a profession. 

The average amount or expense of manufacturing kelp, is 
from 21. 5si to 4/. I5y. say 3/. lOj. per ton, upon an average; 
and in most cases, through the whole Highland properties, the 
landlords usually reserve the kelp to themselves, and it is in very 
few instances indeed that kelp is now let with the farm to the 
tenant. 

In general the proprietors of large kelp-estates contrive to 
have two classes or descriptions of tenants ; the one consisting 
of well-informed judicious men, commonly called gentlemen 
tacksmen, who occupy large districts of ground, and pay a rent 
to their landlord according to the quantity, quality, and value 
of their respective farms ; the other of the small, or as they are 
called, operative tenants, who are generally employed with their 
families, during the summer, in manufacturing their landlord's 
kelp; during the harvest, partly in fishing, and partly in secu- 
ring their crops ; during the winter, in making compost mid- 
dens for manuring his farms, building and repairing houses, 
march-dykes, head-dykes, and subdivision-dykes ; and in spring 
in putting the seed under ground. 

It is difi'erent with the cod and ling fishers, who generally 
occupy smaller lots of land than their brother tenants : they 
commence the cod-fishery in February, and follow that up by 
the ling-fishery until the month of July, when they begin to 
prepare for the herring-fishery, and continue that occupation 
until November and December. Such is the management in the 
island of Ulva, where there are from thirty to fifty fishers ; 
and it is believed that this system has now begun to be univer- 
sally adopted all over the other islands on the west coast of Scot- 
land. The manufacture of kelp possesses an advantage, which 
is considerable in so remote a part of the kingdom as the He- 
brides, that of affording employment to children, as well as 
persons advanced in life. 

O o 



290 



1 he proper season for cutting kelp-ware, or wrack, and man^ 
ubc unng ;t into kelp, is from the first week of May to the 
middle of August; and when properly and regularly cut, the 
wrack acquu-es us full growth in two years afterlards^wien" 
may again be cut and manufactured into kelp ; so that what L 
cut m the summer of 1808 will again be read; for undergoing 
the same process in the summer of 1810. It has been asserted 
in some recent pubhcations, that, upon the kelp-estates, the a- 
mount of rent paid by the small tenants was regulated by the 
price which the proprietors chose to give for manufacturing the 
kelp: or, mother words, that it is all one to the poor kfl per 

S 1 nXd'. Tr^" V"' P"l^ °^ ""''' ^^^°"^ ^" mannfacturfng 
his landlords kelp as that was balanced off by a proportionablf 
rise in the rent of his lands. This, I am assured by a gentleman 
of large landed property, and a considerable propHetorofTelp 
tmself, IS so far from being the case, that there is generally a 
'X^''^''.^P''^^^one.ery year for the kelp-shores. ^ AU oveJ 
the Hebrides, rent is now paid in money, and not in kind 
_ , /°'^ and chmate of most parts of the islands and west 
coast of Scotland, and the shelter which they afford, are beTter 
adapted to grazing than cropping. There is no calculating the 
exten of cultivation mto which these islands maybe brought 
from the almost primeval state in which they still continue The 
averagepriceof land in Mull and Ulva is still very W com! 
pared with the price which is given for land in the neighbouri^. 
districts of Lorn Knapdale, the Duke of Gordon'sfand Mr^ 
Cameron, of Lochiel's, property, &c. &c. Although there are 
several fields in Ulva, consisting of twelve to fifteen acres each 
which are annually enclosed an'd carefully laid down in grass! 
seeds, and in good heart, for which 1/. 10.. and 27. per\cre 
have been frequently offered for the grass alone, stilUt was 
found by the proprietor to be more beneficial and produc 
tive to keep it in his own hands, for pasturing bla^ck cat! 

I was informed, by a gentleman who had long resided in the 

Hebrides, and knew their local advantages well,^ that the popu 

ation of the islands would be by no means too great if some^of 

he arge estates were put in a proper train of mahagemem and 

the land distributed amongst the lower classes upon T^fferent 

plan and principle from those now followed. Vot that the 

r.^ ll// . r P^P'''^ of giving their farms exclusively tc 
nmall tenants, for that indeed would be ruinous to a large e^ 



291 

tate, but that the extent of the moor and hill pastures of the 
larger tenements, which are possessed by the gentlemen tacks- 
men, should be increased, and part of the better, or arable, 
soil, divided among the small tenants, but in smaller quantities 
than formerly, and on such terms and for sugh a duration of 
lease as to induce them to improve their respective lots, and toll 
the land off by enclosures for hay, corn, and green crops and 
pasture. Upon this mode, he assured me, the economy and 
sound policy of Highland management principally turn. 

The right of primogeniture exists all over Scotland amongst 
the higher classes, and most generally amongst the lower orders 
also. Staffa thinks it good policy to encourage it amongst his 
tenantry, being of opinion that it is a valuable remnant of the 
feudal system. As an instance, he has upon his property at pre- 
sent some tenants, who are the fifth and sixth generations, in re- 
gular descent, upon the same piece of ground, and who would re- 
fuse exchanging it for twice its size upon English ground. 

This local attachment is productive of the best effects, which 
will be abundantly displayed should the common enemy ever at- 
tempt to add Great Britain to the conquests he has already 
made. In these remote parts of the kingdom the spirit of pa- 
triotism burns as ardently as on the Continent of Great Britain. 
Even in the little island of Ulva there is a corps of seventy-one 
volunteers, including officers ; and in the island of Mull there 
are two corps, each as large as that of Ulva. To the eternal 
honour of the Scottish volunteers be it mentioned, that before 
they were disbanded in April, 1802, two-thirds, if not three- 
fourths of them, volunteered their services to any part of Great 
Britain. 

Notwithstanding the occasional vexations which those who 
chiefly live by the fisheries endure in consequence of the salt- 
laws, the natives of Ulva, and, it is believed, of the other 
islands, have an opportunity of living in great comfort and hap- 
piness. Their food consists of fish, of which they have up- 
wards of twenty different species, within a few hundred yards 
of the shore, all around the island and along the coast ; of mut- 
ton, lamb, and beef, of which they, of late years, consume a 
good deal ; of geese, ducks, hens, chickens, &c. &c. Indeed^ 
at certain seasons of the year, they consume a considerable quan' 
tity of poultry ; eggs and milk they have in great abundance all 
the year round. 

^ The worthy Laird of Ulva arranges all the lots of land upon 
his property in such a manner, that the holder of the scnailest 



292 

lot of land has his two cows, and from that number up to six, ten, 
and twelve cows. In consequence of this, many of them not 
only provide their families with butter and cheese, but have a 
surplus to dispose of. The bread generally made use of is from 
barley and oatmeal, of which they also make porridge, which 
forms theip breakfast or supper, along with milk •, and when 
there is any scarcity of that in the winter months, they take 
molasses with their porridge. 

As every small tenant, or lotman, has a garden attached to 
his house, he in general plants a quantity of cabbages, and of 
late turnip, which, with potatoes, are the principal vegetables ; 
the latter are so much cultivated, and in such abundance, that 
they eat a great quantity of them with their fish, of which, as 
I have mentioned, they have great variety, close to the shore 
of most of their respective lots ; and in general every tenant 
has a row-boat for himself and family, with which they fish, 
make kelp, &c. &c. 

The natives of the Highlands and Hebrides still continue 
their dislike to eels, as an article of food, and which they ne- 
ver touch. Their prejudice against eating pork and bacon is 
now subsided, and in general that species of food is as much 
made use of as any other. Wheaten bread is not as yet used 
by the farmers in the Hebrides, though it is hoped it soon will 
be, and with that view the Laird of Ulva has sent a young man 
from Ulva, and apprenticed him to a respectable baker in Edin- 
burgh, and as soon as his apprenticeship is out, which will be 
very soon, Staffa intends to build a house for him, and to en- 
courage him to follow his profession on the island of Ulva. 

The quern, a rude instrument for grinding corn, is, as I was 
well informed, now wholly discontinued as well in the High- 
lands as the Hebrides, though they are still to be seen in some 
of the old tenants' houses. In Ulva, and in all the Hebrides, 
there are water-mills, of the most modern and approved con- 
struction, for grinding corn ; I mean barley, beg, or here, oats, 
rye, &c. and in general there are two or three, and often 
more of such mills, within the bounds of every parish in the 
Highlands and islands of Scotland. In the parish of Killninan 
there are no fewer than six corn-mills. "Within a few years se- 
veral shops have also been opened at Tobermorry and Oskamill, 
in the island of Mull ; and at Sorrobay, Bernis, Ormaig, and 
the Sound of Ulva, within the island of Ulva ; and I was in- 
formed that all over the Western Islands., or Hebrides, shop= 



293 

rbi" retaiiing ail kinds of merchant goods are now becoming 
pretty general. 

The islands of Mull, Ulva, Gometra, and lona, h^ve only 
three clergymen between thetn. In consequence of the great 
extent and population of their respective charges, the many 
places at which they have to preach, the difficulties of travel- 
ling through the islands, and of passing from one to the other, 
these itinerant ministers are enabled to preach only every second 
and third Sunday at those places which have been established 
for the ordinances of Divine worship. During the Sundays, 
how{>ver, where there are no preachings, the schoolmasters are 
regularly employed in these islands (at least it is so in Ulva) in 
visiting the tenantry, and assembling them in places previously 
fixed upon for that purpose, where they read and explain the 
Scriptures to the people, and regularly catechise the children, 
and appoint them psalms and religious questions, to repeat and 
answer against their next meetings, which are most punctually 
attended. Besides these public exhortations in the forenoons, 
the natives, in general, pray in private. The- clergymen of 
the above three parishes enjoy a stipend, including other casu- 
alties and advantages, varying from 150/. to 300/. a year each. 
I was also informed that their brethren in the neighbouring 
parishes on the west coast of Scotland are as well provided for. 
Upon inquiring in Ulva whether there was a church for the 
minister to officiate in, I was informed that there still remain 
the ruins of a church of considerable size in the island, in 
which it is generally believed the inhabitants not only of Ulva, 
but of the neighbouring farms, were in the habit of tc;;'.. bling 
tjo hear Divine worship. That period, from the Sj .:^.' :::^ce of 
the ruins, must have been very remote. Round th's church 
there is an extensive burying-ground, enclosed by a stone wall, 
which is now, and has been from time immemcriai, made use of 
for that purpose. In tl\is churchyard are a great number of 
loose stones placed upon the top of each grave, respecting which 
John Macquarrie, an old man of nearly ninety years of age, 
and whose ancestors, for many generations back, have inhabited 
this farm for several centuries past, relates, that the reason why 
so many stones had been placed on these ancient graves was to 
prevent the dead bodies from being dug up by wolves, with 
which, even during his grandfather's time, the island of Ulva 
abounded, having, even at that late period, some wood, chiefly- 
oak, upon it ; and that, such was the force of habit and preju- 
dice, though, for upwards of sixty years, there have besn nei- 



294 

ther wolves, foxes, nor venomous animals of any kind or de- 
scription, seen in the island of Ulva, yet it is not more than 
thirty years since the custom of covering the graves with stones 
was discontinued. 

The islands abound with foxes, rabbits, hares, and every va- 
riety of game, such as muir-fowl, or growse, heath-fowl, com- 
monly called black cock, heath-hen, woodcock, snipe, and a 
very fine bird called the cock of the wood, or the kapperkelly. 
This bird has, from some unknown cause, been more scarce of 
late years than it was in former times. There is also the ptar- 
migan J and, of the ordinary birds, innumerable quantities of 
pigeons, plover of both kihds, the grey and the green plover, 
the curlew, mayfowl, pyet, red-shanks, together with a great 
variety of other species of land-birds. Of the sea-fowl there 
are five different kinds of wild geese, and eight or ten kinds 
of ducks, amongst which the shell-drake is celebrated for the 
rich beauty of its plumage. There are also, of the sea-gull, 
or sea-maw, five or six different species ; solan geese, cormo- 
rants, scarts, marrots, and a great variety of smaller birds. 
Wild swans also visit the Hebrides every winter, from the 
northern regions. 

Coal has been found in Sky, in Mull, and in some other of 
the islands, though, as yet no fair trial has been made of the 
extent or value of the seams of such coal, StafFa has all his 
coal from the main land to Ulva-house by the vessels which sail 
with his kelp, and as there are annually made upon his proper- 
ty about two hundred tons of that article, he is seldom at a loss 
in getting coal, or any other fuel, for the consumption of the 
family of Ulva-house, brought home at an easy rate.. 



295 



CHAPTER XXVIL 



'->:chKS7nieth — Lismore— Loch Acme descr-hprl—fh. .;r-' ■ . 

^ain, prevented me from joining the pleasant party I have be- 
fore „,entioned to the green isle of Inchkenneth, whkh lay 
very near Ulva, and looked like an emerald ^ 

" set in the silver sea." 

In this island, the reader will remember, Dr. iohnson e^ 
penenced much hospitality from Sir Allan Maclean and his 
daughters, wh.eh had the effect of putting him in perfect eood 
humour, and he has accordingly written an eleganfand camf 
vatmg eulogy on the family 'and the place. He .describes st 
Allans establishment to have been one cottage for himself and 
two more for the domestics. « We eritereV says he « and 
and w 11 ." ' ''/' Pt^" ^®^^^' O"^ ^°°- ^^s :XatW floored 
^h^Zf t'"^' and our dinner, which was dressed in one of 
the other huts, was plentiful and delicate.»-Upon the return 
of he party, one of the gentlemen informed me^that thi' [si nd" 
Ta^ amLr ;P7P'"^°^^^^^^' is about a mile long, and 
stafe oTcnh V '. ' '^"V }\'''}''^'^ fertile, and in a\igh 
I T, / ^*'°"' that It IS inhabited bv a few cattle and a 

da^f c'nii^rd ^'r ''r 'r '^^^^^^"^ °^ ^^- Baronerin its tes 
days, consisted only of tloree rooms, not one of which seemed 

capacious enough to have admitted Johnson to tu n Sf 
without putting his head out of the window. ' 

iml'ssionf o? lu"' 'i ■"?' ^'"".^ °^ Ulva-house with strong 
impressions of their kindness. Though their residence i. .S 

are never without visiters, attracted by the iUands, many of 

W.T T. ''"""g™*/" &■• "'!"=•• rank, talent, or cSer 
We landed agam ,n Mull, at the head of Loch 4keal 0„lv 
one horse and that the leanest of his race, confd be proc^^ed 
for our whole party. The horses in Mull are so aceustCed n 
*e,r natwe country, that they are never move in drng r of fa'^ 



296 

ling than when on good level ground. After a miserable walk 
over a constant succession of streamlets, pools of water, and 
soft ground, that is, ground full of miry holes, we once more 
reached Aros, where we were hospitably entertained by Mr. 
Maxwell, The next day we set off in an open boat for Airds, 
near Appin, the seat of Sir John Campbell, a little voyage 
of upwards of thirty miles. We had a jfine wind, blowing fresh 
and fair nearly all the way •, and, what was of great consequence 
to us, the clouds retained their waters, and we had a yery 
agreeable sail through the Sound of Mull, along the shores of. 
Mull and Morven. Round the southern point of the latter we 
turned our course up Loch Linnhe, passing by the long, verdant, 
and beautiful island of Lismore, the name of which signifies a 
large garden ; apd after weathering the southern point of the 
Bay of Airds with some difficulty, we reached the mansion, 
which is most delightfully situated amidst woods, rocks, moun- 
tains, dales, and waters, and once more trod the main land, af- 
ter having been deluged with rain and hospitality in the islands. 
Of the weather which I experienced in these isles I have not 
been able to give a favourable account i but it ought to be con- 
sidered that I visited them late in the season for such a visit, and 
that many a grey-beard afterwards told me he had not for many 
years witnessed a summer and an autumn so chilly and rainy. 

A party of us, who were going to Inverary-castle, quitted 
Sir John and Lady Campbell, and their beautiful residence, 
with regret, and set out for Dalmally, between which and 
Airds, about fifteen miles from the latter place, at Taynuilt we 
dined, after a most enchanting ride. The latter place is sur- 
rounded with graceful and sublime scenery, which would re- 
quire a master's pencil to pourtray. There is a plain little rus- 
tic monument here, erected to the memory of the illustrious 
Nelson, which has nothing about it worthy of notice, but that 
it has the precedence, in point of time, of any other of that 
description in the kingdom; an honour rendered very easy by 
the rudeness of its materials. Afterwards we followed the line 
of the river Awe, which is very long, black, deep, narrow, and 
rapid, flowing into Loch Etive, Our course lay through copses 
of weeping birch and hazel, along the foot of the stupendous 
and rugged Cruachan Ben, a mountain measuring three thou- 
sand two hundred and ninety feet above the level of the sea, 
and twenty miles in circumference at its base. This Alpine 
scenery, particularly as the evening advanced, was at once aw- 
ful and tremendous ; frequently the road extended along a 



297 

frightful precipice, overhanging Loch Awe, which lay in many 
places a prodigious depth below us^ and which we occasionally 
Saw, through the openings of trees impending over it, reflecting 
■^tar for star of the cloudless sky in its clear, but sable, mirror of 
waters ; whilst huge shattered fragments of rock, arrested in 
their descent by projecting crags, impended awfully and fright- 
fully, far above us, on the sides of this mighty mountain, de- 
riving increased magnitude and horror from the shadows of the 
night, the solemn silence of which was only interrupted by the 
melancholy murmur of remote waterfalls. 

The superstition of the neighbouring peasants still gives cur- 
rency to the tradition of the terrific Bera, to whom was com- 
mitted " the charge of the awful spring," conceived to be the 
, source of the lake, and who, from the summits of Cruaehan 
Ben, could at will pour down floods npon the fields below. Our 
hostess at Tayriuilt informed us that Dalmally was only eleven 
miles off, and the distance proved to be at least twenty. When 
we reached the inn it was late, and every bed was occupied. 
' The views about Dalmally are very romantic and beautiful, 
and well merited the eulogy which the iiiustrious Burke bestow- 
ed upon them. The inn, which was built by Lord Breadalbane, 
is, properly speaking, called Dalmally, and the village and pa- 
rish Glenorchy. 

Loch Awe is a noble lake, yielding only to Loch Lomond in 
picturesque beauty. When undisturbed, its waters are re- 
markably transparent, though their colour is very sable ; and it 
is adorned by islands, rising above its placid surface, crowned 
with picturesque ruins, amongst which those of Kilchurn-castle 
most arrest the attention. This pile was the seat of the ances- 
tors of the Duke of Argyle, and was built by the Lady of Sir 
Colin Campbell in 1440 ; and in 1745 was garrisoned by some 
of the King's forces, to preserve the tranquillity of this part of 
the country. It is built as most houses were in distant times, ex- 
hibiting, in its form, strength, and situation^ the melancholy 
truth of man's hostility to man. The island of Inishail, with 
its monastic ruins, is also very beautiful. 

Happily for the poor of this district, which is but little adapt- 
ed for the growth of grain, potatoes are very much cultivated. 
If any one would wish to experience the full value of this bles-^ 
sed vegetable, this inestimable breadfruit of the country, let 
him go to the Highlajids, where he will see thousands sustained 
by it, who, before its present extensive cultivation, used to lan- 
guish through half the year in want and hunger. Considerable 



29S 

i[uantujcs ol hsi<. are caught in this lake. T. he ride along its 
shores- was extremely beautiful and picturesque. At Cladich, 
the road turns abruptly ofF, in a south-western direction, into a 
country the very reverse of that which we had contemplated 
with so much delight. It was rugged, barren, hilly, and for 
many miles presented neither a bold nor an agreeable feature, 
until we entered the Duke of Argyle's plantations, when the 
whole scene as suddenly changed in our favour. Near the road 
we saw a cascade produced by the descent of the river Arey 
over some opposing rocks. In the road we met a sick old 
'ghastly female pauper,, unable to walk, carried on a litter by 
some young men and women, who were to convey her to a cer- 
tain distance, at the end of which she would receive further as- 
sistance, until she reached her parish, during which time she 
would be supported by voluntary subscription : this, I was in- 
formed, was a practice in the Highlands as common as it is hu- 
mane. After passing through a vast and noble plantation of 
stately trees, we were glad to sit down to dinner at an admirable 
inn at Inverary, which fronted the park, a beautiful bridge 
which crosses the Arey, a bay of Loch Fyne, and many a 
mountain rising from its shores. 

The castle, the residence of his Grace the Duke of Argyle, 
is a noble building, standing upon a lawn, and flanked with 
circular towers. I spent several days under this august and hos- 
pitable roof, during which it scarcely ceased to rain with great 
violence ; but now and then a temporary cessation and sun- 
beam enabled me to observe the singular effect which the 
change of the weather produced upon the face of the building, 
which was composed of a stone called the lapis ollaris, the co>^ 
lour of which varies with the state of the atmosphere : when 
it rains, every part upon which the moisture falls assumes a 
gloomy dusky hue ; and, when it shines, it becomes almosi: 
white in the beams of the sun. 

There is little in the interior of the castle worthy of notice, 
except the hail, which is a very lofty room, rising to the top of 
the house. In two of the upper arcades of this hall are finely 
executed statues of Perseus and Andromeda, and of Arria and 
Pdstus. In the park are some very fine limes and beeches. 
The Duke of Argyle is the chief of a vast portion of the West- 
ern Highlands, and is much beloved and respected. From his 
Grace, to whom I had a ktter of introduction, I experienced 
the most flattering attentions. He is building a magnificent 



299 

seat on the site of a former one destroyed by fire, on the west- 
ern bank of Loch Gair, called Roseneath. 

The population of the town of Inverary is estimated at about 
eleven hundred inhabitants. There is no manufacture carried 
on here. The herring, fishery is the only business in which its 
inhabitants are engaged, and that is confined to curing and sel- 
ling the herrings caught in the neighbourhood by open boats, 
■each of which is navigated by four men. The fishing seaspn 
commences about Midsummer, and is seldom protracted beyond 
Christmas, and generally not so long. This fishery is very un- 
certain. Some years it is wonderfully abundant, and in others 
no herrings are to be seen. The number of boats used must 
therefore vary very much in different years. In some seasons, 
five hundred boats have been assembled in Loch Fyne. The 
Crinan Canal, between Loch Fyne and the Western Ocean, i^ 
completed ; and it has been found of great advantage to the 
public, although the proprietors have not derived any benefit 
from it. It was, at first, carried on by private individuals, and 
has been finished by the aid of Government. It is in contem- 
plation to enlarge the reservoirs this summer 5 and perhaps a 
greaving-dock, and some other useful works, might be execu- 
ted, if Government would afibrd some further assistance. The 
Duke of Argyle, the Earl of Breadalbane, and some others, 
have been the great promoters and supporters of this under- 
taking. 

I quitted Inverary-castle and its festivities for Loch Lomond, 
the ride to which presents successive scenes of beauty, grandeur, 
and desolation. I slept at Arroquhar, a good inn in a most 
pictijresque spot. The next day, the morning of which was 
soft (in other words, it rained as hard as it could pour), I reach- 
ed the town of Luss, from which I procured a boat and four 
boatmen to carry me on the lake of Loch Lomond to Ross, the 
delightful resideoce of my much-esteemed friend. Hector 
M'Donald Buchannan, Esq. where I experienced much kind- 
ness and hospitality from hicti and his amiable lady. The little 
voyage on this great and magnificent lake, so finely described 
by Smollet in Humphry Clinker, and by many tourists, was 
uncommonly gratifying. The next day I contemplated from a 
height its vast extent of waters, nearly thirty miles long, its 
beautiful, richly- wooded, and numerous islands, and the stu- 
pendous mountain of Benlomond, to the summit of which^ 
from the water's edge, is about six miles of continued ascent. 
A more beautiful and sublime spectacle cannot be cont£mplated. 



300 

Inuring my visit at the Ross I rode to Dumbarton, from which 
the views are very fine and commanding. In the vicinity are 
many picturesque scenes, enriched by the windings of the Le- 
ven and the Clyde. From the Ross I proceeded to Gartmorej 
the elegant seat of Cunninghame Graham, Esq. under whose 
hospitable roof I passed several days, which, from the atten- 
tions of him and his lovely lady, and the beauty of the place, 
will long be remembered with pleasure. In my way to Gartmore I 
passed through the beautiful grounds of the Duke of MontrosCj, 
in which there is much fine timber. At Gartmore there are a 
few excellent pictures, by Rubens, Claude Lorraine, Ba«'ghem, 
Jean Stein, Salvatbr, and Gerard Dow. Mr. Graham has also 
several valuable curiosities in his library. The lakes of Mon- 
teith, in the neighbourhood of Gartmore, are highly worthy of 
attention ; they are small, but very interesting. One of the 
islands, about half a mile in circumference, is a little paradise ; 
it contains the ruins of a monastery, some noble trees, and two 
or three luxuriant gardens, all of which do great honour to the 
taste of the holy fraternity who made it their residence in distant 
days. ■ 

I left these scenes for others of a very different description. I 
allude to the Trossachs, a region of savage and naked rocks, 
*7hich appear to have been hurled together in some angry and 
frantic mood of Nature. It was a scene of sublime desolation. 
The great mountairfs which form the principal features in this 
chaos are Benledi, or the Mountain of God ; Benivenow, or the 
High Hill, which is encrusted with sharp rocks ; and BenmorCj 
or the Great Hill, whose summits are covered with eternal 
shows. The Duke and Duchess of Bedford had just been vi- 
siting this part of Scotland. During their excursions, her 
Grace, with that true passion for her native country, which, 
with so many other excellent qualities, distinguishes her cha- 
racter, suffered no object worthy of their notice to pass unvi- 
s'lted, although she was frequently exposed to " the weeping- 
winds" in places where no carriage cari ever roll. As the Duke 
is well known to be a great patron of agriculture, the peasants^ 
with a little laudable vanity, considered the object of his tour" 
was to ascertain the cause of their corn being so much stronger 
and more productive than that grown in England. In my route 
to Loch Katherine, or Ketterine, I crossed the Grampians. 
This lake has much beauty to recommend it. I slept at Callen- 
dar, which is a very pretty town, in a romantic situation; the 
bouses owe much of their neatness to a stone and slate quarry 



301 

being in the neighbourhood. From Callendar I pr-oeeeded to 
Loch Earn, which does not possess many pictui-esque charms, 
at least for my eye. The first view I had of KiUin, after lea- 
ving Loch Earn, waS singularly grand ; this place is in a situa- 
tion romantic beyond description. It stands at the base of sur- 
rounding mountains, whose dusky sides are occasionally en- 
livened by the white stripes of water descending from their 
summits, whilst a mountain torrent rolling over a bed of rock 
bekjw, and rushing by a group of firs, nearly divides one half 
of the town from the other. The town is very poar ; and has 
scarcely any trade or manufactures. As there is no coal in that 
part of the country, the inhabitants are obliged to use turf. 
The inn at Killin is very comfortable, and the innkeeper re- 
markably moderate in his charges. I had a letter to the Laird 
of M'Nab, v>lio has a house and a large family burial-place near 
the town, walled off, and covered with aged firs. This Laird 
lives, I vcas informed, in the style of the ancient chieftains, and 
is the only one who does so in Scotland. He v/as"from home 
when I called. 

I had just mounted my horse to quit this enchanting and ro- 
njantic spot, "when the bell of the church, which stood close to 
the inn, began to toll, and immediately afterwards a concourse 
of men appeai'ed, moving with hasty steps to the church-yard, 
which induced me to follow them : in the middle of the throng 
I observed four men bearing a coffin to the grave, into which, 
with great decorum, but without ceremony, the poor remains 
of rrjortality were lowered : at that moment every one took off 
his blue bonnet, and three of the group advanced to the verge 
of the grave, where they remained until it was filled up, in at- 
titudes of manly and unaffected sorrow : a long roll of green 
turf was then brought upon a pole, unravelled, and neatly 
placed over the mound. So rapid was the interment, that, in 
about ten minutes, only here and there a little scattered fresh 
mould distinguished this from the neighbouring tombs. The 
funeral bell struck but a few strokes ; no minister attended, no 
prayer was said, no anthem sung. The deceased was the 
daughter of an opulent farmer ; and one of those who attended 
said that the Highlands could not boast of a lassie more good or 
more bonny, and that she fell in the bloom of youth : yet no fe- 
male mourner was there. Such were the features of this so- 
lemn scene, and such, I presutne the usage of this part of the 
Highlands. Accustomed to see the dead interred with more 
showy sorrow, at first, I must confess, I thought these Caledo- 



302 

aiaa mountaineers were destitute of that sensibility which the 
memory of the departed inspires in every other country, amongst 
the most savage as well as the most refined ; but a minute's re- 
flection rescued them from this impression by placing their re- 
ligion before me, simple and unadorned as it is in all its offices, 
and by the marks of genuine, though silent sorrow, which ap- 
peared in every countenance ; and I also recollected to have met, 
in my way to Killin, at some miles distant, several of the figures 
which stood before me, who had assembled from remote vil- 
lages to mingle in the funeral procession. One of the group, 
after observing me for some time, advanced to me, and cour- 
teously asked me if I came from London ? I answered him in 
the affirmative. — « That is the place, I believe," said he, 
** where the King tarries." — I told him it was. — " Ah !" re- 
plied he, " then you must be surprised to see the manner in 
which we have placed this corpse in the ground, for I have 
heard you bury your dead there with more ceremony, but yet 
you do not feel more than we." I fully agreed with the ho- 
nest Highlcinder, who, after a few more words, bowed and 
withdrew. 

I shall long remember this scene, with which the very ele- 
ments were in unison. At a distance were heard the murmurs 
of waterfalls ; from a deep romantic glen a broad meandering 
stream, as it flowed to the Loch, watered one side of the 
church-yard ; the leaves of many a stately beech and elm rus- 
tled in the precursive blast of an approaching snow-storm, 
which, as it passed away, left the brown summits of the vast 
surrounding mountains, white ; whilst the expressive faces, 
athletic limbs, and Tartan dress of the Highlanders before me, 
and the solemn cause of their assembling, presented a grand 
and affecting picttfre at once tp the eye and to the njind^ 






CHAPTER XXVin. 

Lifjes io the Caledonian harp~~-Loch Toy— house of Taymouth — monutneTt' 
tal inseriptions — Duke of AthoVs park' — Dankeld — Athoi Broze—anec- 
dote~^a nuee bit o'ver the brae—Doune — the Lord's anointed-— Glasgoix? 
'-•Argyle-street^— 'Tontine coffee-house— tolbooth — infirmary — cathedral-' 
cnUege — Andenonian institution — Nelson's monument — steams— theatre 
"—circuit court-^remarks on cotton mills-^Clyde and Waterfalls-^Kttg- 
by school. 

AS I rode along, thinking of M«Nab and his piper, the 
following lines occurred to my mind, which I afterwards re- 
touched at Killin : — 

LINES 

ON THE CALEDONIAN HARP. 

In days that long have glided by. 

Beneath keen Scotia's weeping sky. 

On many a hill of purple heath. 

In many a gloomy glen beneath. 

The wandering lyrist once was knov/n 

"To pour his harp's entrancing tone. 

Then', when the castle's rocky form 

Rose mid the dark surrounding storm, 

TPhe harper had a sacred seat. 

Whence he might breathe his wild notes sweift. 

Oh ! then, when many atwi-nkling star 

Shone in the azure vault afar. 

And mute was ev'ry mountain bird. 

Soft music from the harp was heard ; 

And when the morning's blushes shed 

On hill, on tow'r, their varying red. 

Oh \ then the harp \vas heard to cheer 

With earliest sound th' enraptur'd ear. 

There many a lady fair was known. 

With snowy hand to wake its tone j 

And infant fingers press'd-the string. 

And back recoil'd to heaf it sing. 

Sweet instrument ! such was thy pow'r— = 

'Twas thine to gladden ev'ry hour ; 

The young and old then honour'd thee, 

And smil'd to hear thy melody. 

Alas ! as Time has tura'd to dust 



304 

Th' embattled tower, the beauteous b■JS^, 
Thou too hast mark'd his frowning brow— ^ 
No IJighlartd echo knows the now : 
A savage has usurp'd thy place. 
Once fiird by thee with ev'ry grace— 
Th' inflated pipe, with swinish drone. 
Calls fo4tli applauses once thine own ! 

The pen and the pencil would fail in giving any adequate 
idea of Loch Tay — a superb expanse of water, fifteen miles 
long, and from one to two broad. Neat farms and country re- 
sidences every where enliven the eye. The road winds through 
plantations of young beech and oak, beneath the arches of 
whose branches the lake is seen in a thoiisand points of varying 
beauty : a prodigal luxuriance diffuses itself over the fields 
which line its verdant margin, and high up the sides of the 



6' 



majestic mountains, which, whitened by many a waterfall, are 
reflected in its mirror ; whilst a small island, thickly covered 
with trees, and supporting the ruins of a priory, the picturesque 
church-tower, bridge, and village of Kenmore, embellish its 
beautiful termination. In this island the remains of the Queen 
of Alexander the First of Scotland are said to be interred. The 
inn at Kenmore wanted only a bellows to render it very conve- 
nient ; the servant told me there were none in the house, and 
she puffed my fire with her own healthy lungs. The lake 
abounds with salmon, pike, perch, eels, char, and trout. Lord 
Breadalbane has vast property in this part of Scotland, and an 
immense extent of pleasure-ground. About two miles from 
Kenmore, towards Killin, I visited the hermitage belonging to 
his Lordship, throitgh the rustic window of which is seen a 
beautiful waterfall, two hundred and seventy feet in extent of 
visible descent. His Lordship is building anew house upon 
the site of the ancient house of Taymouth : that which is 
erecting appeared to be designed almost precisely from Inverary- 
castle, and also to be built with the lapis ollaris : the wings of 
the ancient mansion were standing. Hills thickly covered with 
stately trees rise before and behind it. As I advanced in my 
way to Dunkeld, upon leaving Taymouth- castle, I passed by a 
small druidical temple, and near Aberfeldie saw the Fall of 
Moness, which I think one of the finest I ever beheld. The 
road to Dunkeld, occasionally extended along the banks of 
the Tay, was a continuation of beautiful and picturesque ob- 
jects. 



305 

The evening was far advanced when I reached the ferry 
below Dunkeld. The scenery was very beautiful and pic- 
turesque, and the Tay runs with a deep and rapid current, after 
winding from a south-western to a north-eastern direction by a 
noble meander above. Arrived on the other side, I passed un- 
der a brick archway, which connects one part of the Duke of 
Athol's grounds with another ; and after a ride through a noble 
avenue of elms and other stately trees, and another arch, and 
by the remains of the cathedral, occupying a large space towards 
the north-east end of the street, I reached the inn, which was 
so crowded, that it was solely owing to the courtesy of two gen- 
tlemen who were visiting the Highlands that I could obtain ad- 
mission to a room. I did not then know that there was an ex- 
cellent inn, affording every comfort and accommodation, on the 
other side, within two or three hundred yards of the ferry, but 
out of the road which I came. 

In the morning I visited the cathedral, which is a noble Gd« 
thicpile, and throws over the town the interesting appearaace 
of antiquity. The choir still remains, and is used for worship. 
The chancel is now the burial-ground ; and the whole building, 
standing between the grounds of the Duke of Athol and the 
town, forms a continuation of the Duke's park- wall. Upoa 
one of the tomb- stones I read, " Here lie Roy Macdonald, 
and Eliza Fleming, his wife." Amongst the lower people, the 
wife continues her maiden name ; and if a widow, and several 
times married, she may, if she likes it, select the name of the 
husband she liked best. 

Dunkeld was long a Bishop's see ; and amongst those who did 
honour, by their piety and learning, to the Catholic religion, 
during its establishment In Scotland, the tourist, with peculiar 
pleasure, recurs to the well-known history of Gavin Douglas, 
once Bishop of this see. This illustrious Prelate was one of the 
ancestors of Lord Glenbervie. He was of a noble family, and 
was born in 14'74 : he excelled in theology and poetry. 

The ruins of this cathedral form a picturesque object to the 
Duke's house, which is very plain, and badly situated. I was in- 
formed that it is in contemplation to remove it for one upon a 
magnificent scale. The park and grounds, which are very ex- 
tensive, are richly adorned with trees of stately and graceful 
growth, by hill and dale, and lofty craggy rocks, majestically 
rising, thinly shaded with young firs. Along the river, and 
sometimes diverging from it, the most delightful walks are cut 
through woods, shrubberies, and corn-fields. A violent storm 



$06 

of raia prevented ine froui contemplating Osslan's Hall, a build- 
ing which stands close to a noble cataract. 

His Grace of Athol is perhaps the most princely hunter in the 
kingdom ; whenever he chases the roebuck, an immense num- 
ber of peasants and gamekeepers are put in requisition ; the 
latter equipped with telescopes, to discover and drive the deer 
towards hiai. These animals are very numerous at Athol, where 
the Duke has another seat, and where he was during my stay at 
Dunkeld : they are extremely shy, and give their destroyers, 
as a just retaliation, great trouble in shooting them •, and in" the 
accomplishment of this a dexterity is necessary, in which the 
Dukcj I am informed, is without a rival. The venison of 
the wild deer is much admired ; it runs to a great size, is fat, 
and very delicious. The Duke is hereditary Ranger of the 
King's Forest of Athol, by which he obtains a prodigious tract 
of country for the.pursuit of his favourite amusement. 

Dunkeld, or " the Hill of Hazles," has been most justly ce- 
lebrated by the poet, and formed the subject of the painter. It 
was considered to be in the centre of Old Caledonia, and is now 
esteemed to be in the heart of the Highlands. Verbal descrip- 
tion can impart but a faint impression of the romantic and ex- 
quisite scenery which here every where banquets the eye. 
Upon the hill descending to Dunkeld, the traveller, if he has a 
relish for the charms of Nature, would be amply rewarded for 
the toil and labour of a long pilgrimage. Below, the Tay is 
seen meandering along banks feathered with wood to the water's 
edge ; advancing, it is broken into foam as it dashes over a rough 
bed of large stones, aad passes under the ample arches of a new 
and noble bridge : the town, and the venerable cathedral, emi- 
nently picturesque, just rise above the river upon lawns or fields 
that slope to the water, whilst the whole is surrounded with the 
vast wood3 of the Duke, with rocks rising in awful grandeur, 
with grounds that are luxuriantly clothed with trees or verdure, 
and with craggy summits that bid eternal defiance to the plant- 
er's hand. The traveller may remain here many days, and 
discover fresh beauties in every new ramble. 

Great praise is due to the Duke of Athol for the taste which 
he has displayed in aiding and directing the prodigal bounty of 
Nature in this favoured spot, and the liberal and humane atten- 
tion which he pays to his surrounding tenantry, and to the 
comfort and prosperity of the inhabitants of the town. The 
principal sources of opulence to the town are the tanning of 
leather, which is carried on to a considerable extent, and tba 



307 

tiianufacture qF linen, which is the staple commodity. Tht 
bridge, when completed, which it was expected would be next 
year, will be very handsome, and extremely convenient to that 
part of the country. I was informed that 60,000/. had been 
advanced by the Duke of Athol and Government, in equal 
moieties, and that 10,000/. more was to be raised by tolls, to« 
wards the erection of this structure. 

The district of Athol is famous for a hunting cordial, called 
Athol Broze, which is made of whisky, eggs, and honey, and 
is in high estimation. "When Mr. Sheridaq was in this coun- 
try, some time since, he had occasion to ride a few miles to the 
house of a friend to dine, over a country which was almost im- 
passable to carriages, on account of the dreadful state of the 
roads. It is well known that that celebrated chara<;ter, although 
possessed of great personal intrepidity on other occasions, is 
very nervous when he has to encounter any of the difficulties 
or perils of Nature's creation, in going, the orator vsras ob- 
served to express great terror whenever he descended a hill*on 
his shelty, although he moved with the greatest caution and so- 
lemnity ; but, upon his return, he bounded like a Nimrod over 
ruts and chasms, acclivities and descents. Upon being congra- 
tulated on his fearless exertion by a friend, the wit replied, " My 
good fellow, I have taken a due proportion of Athol broze, and 
Athol broze is the best leveller of mountains and repairer of 
roads I ever met with." 

Opposite to the back window of my inn, a barren spot of 
ground was pointed out to me, as the site of part of the cele- 
brated Birnam Wood, but which would not now be capable 
of supplying Macduft's soldiers with a bough apiece. This 
waste spot disfigures the view, every other part of the scenery 
about Dunkeld being richly wooded. The famous Sylva Cale- 
donia once extended from this town to Ross-shire, the only re- 
mains of which are to be s»en near the water of Maeshy,onthe 
banks of Loch Laggan.. The Duke has repeatedly offered the 
owner of this classical space of barrenness to plant it gratu- 
itously, an offer which I was informed the owner had, most 
singularly and unaccountably, as often declined. The Duke 
has carried the patriotic and profitable system of planting to a 
great height, particularly larches. It is a curious circumstance 
•that the two first larches ever seen in Great Britain were brought 
lo T)unke\d in pots, and deposited in a' green-house, as precious 
exotics. The natural soil of the larch-tree is the Alps and Ap- 
penines, and the soil of the Highlands is considered congenial 



308 

to its growth. This wood was selected by the painters, from 
the time bf Pliny to that of Raphael, to paint upon : by the 
Roman naturalist it is called immortale lignum. I was credibly 
informed that in the blight of this tree is the same insect which 
preys upon the eye, and produces the ophthalmia in Egypt. 

Upon quitting Dunkeld I set off for Crieff, to which I rode 
through a very interesting country, and which formed the fre- 
quent subject of Ossian's lyre. I was on horseback : the dark- * 
ness of the night closed upon me: I lost my way, and, in re- 
covering it, had to encounter, as I frequently had done before, 
that terrific part of a Scottish peasant's itinerary information 
Called " a wee bit over the hraeP, Oh ! traveller, when, after a 
long and fatiguing ride or walk, bewildered you ask your way 
to the place you wish to reach, and the answer is, " about three 
miles, and a wee bit over the brae," you will generally find this 
we^ bit bear as great a proportion to the rest of the journey as 
the long tail of a comet does to the comet itself. Crieff is a 
neat and prosperous town, containing about 2,OP0 inhabitants •, 
it stands on the southern slope of a Kill equally distant between 
Perth iand Stirling, lying on the military road, which branches 
off in various directions; Three miles from Crieff is Drum» 
mond-castle, the seat of the Honourable Miss Drummond, the 
only surviving child of the late Lord Perth, which stands in a 
most commanding situation, upon the precipice of a high rock, 
the approaich to which, as well as the rest of the ground, is 
very beaiitlful. At Ardoch I saw the traces of a Roman en- 
campment, which has been often mentioned by tourists. At 
Dumblanie I was much gratified by contemplating the ancient 
cathedral, the only object worthy of notice. From thence I 
proceeded to Doune, a neat town, beautifully situated near the 
river Teath, well known for its manufacture of Highland pis- 
tols, its skilful slaters, and much more for the ruins of its castle, 
a large square building, formerly the residence of the Earls of 
Monteith, now the property of the Earl of Murray. Upon 
my return I once more visited the Lake of Monteith and the 
agreeable family of Gartmore, highly gratified with Perthshire, 
which, as far as I am able to make the comparison, surpasses in 
richness and variety of scenery every county in England. 

I found the road to Glasgow for many miles very utiinterest- 
ing, if I can say so with impunity when the reader is informed 
that my road lay by Killearn, in Stirlingshire, the place which 
gave birth to the illustrious George Buchanan, and which is 
embellished with an obelisk raised to his memory, 100 feet high. 



3C9 

The genius, learning, and singular history^ of this great mafi, 
have been often recorded. Perhaps the following anecdote of 
his firmness as well as humour may no^ be so well known. Ha- 
ving been, at the especial instance of Oueen Mary, appointed 
tutor to her son, James the First of England, he one day order- 
ed his Majesty, who was at play with a fellow-pupil, hot to mak^ 
so much noise ; and upon his making an impertinent answer, 
Buchanan put down his breeehes, and g^ve him a hearty 
flogging. The Countess of Marr, who was in the next apart- 
ment, hearing the King cry out, ran into the room, caught him 
up in her arms, and in a rage demanded of his tutor how he 
dare to lay his hand upon the Lord's anointed ; upon which 
Buchanan calmly said, " Madam, I have whipped his bottom, 
and you may kiss it if you please." 

Within about three miles of Glasgow I saw the great Aque- 
duct Bridge, 275 feet long, which stretches over the beautiful 
valley and river of Kelvin, over which the canal connecting the 
Forth and the Clyde is carried. It consists of four stately 
arches, 37 feet high, and 50 wide. This is a noble and spirited 
undertaking. Glasgow is a superb city, and perhaps without 
a rival in those extraordinary productions of human ingenuity, 
which scientific knowledge and liberal enterprise have furnished 
to Commerce. The tourist will find much to attract and detain 
him in this her chosen seat, and much did I regret that urgent 
family business rendered my stay so short. However, from the 
polite attentions of some distinguished and enlightened persons 
of that city, I was enabled to see much in a short time. 
Amongst the many fine streets which Glasgow may boast of, it 
may challenge any city to exhibit one more spacious, noble, and 
picturesque, than the main street, which runs through the whol«; 
city, and at different parts has acquired the names of Argyle- 
street, Trongate, and Gallowgate. It would be sufiicient to ob- 
serve that the illustrious Burke declared it to be the finest in 
picturesque effect he had ever witnessed. I have passed mapy 
hours in viewing it at different times, under the effect of a 
faint mist, or setting sun, or moonlight, and at every view dis- 
covered fresh beauties in it. In this street is the celebrated Ton- 
tine Coffee-room, which is seventy-two feet long and propor- 
tionably wide, the roof of which, near the principal entrance, 
is supported by columns of the Doric order. The whole has 
a very splendid effect, and I believe is not equalled by any build- 
ing of the kind in any part of the United Kingdom of Great 
Britain, or by the Cassinos in different parts of Europe. Here 



3iU 

ail the English, Scottish, and Continental newspapers, and various 
periodical publications, are taken in. This room is supported 
by a subscription. I wish I could say as much of its gloomy 
neighbour, the tolbootli, or prison, a building in every way un- 
worthy of such a city. The cells are narrow, and there is no 
court-yard ; and so insecure is the room allotted to those un- 
happy persons who are condemned to die, that they are closely 
chained to a massy iron bar, fastened lengthways in the centre 
of the room. However, there was an appearance of cleanliness 
and of humanity in this prison, bad as its construction is, very 
creditable to those who are entrusted with its government. 
Some time since, I was informed, the magistrates laid out 7,000/. 
m repairing it, at a time when they might have had 5,000/. for 
selling it. With a little addition to these united sums they 
might have erected a gaol which would have done honour to the 
city. The bridewell is but badly constructed for a correctional 
house ; I believe, it was built for barracks. When I visited it 
there were about one hundred women in it. In each apartment 
that I saw there were two women. Their occupation was em- 
broidery, sewing, &c. according to their habit of life. As it is 
a place of temporary confinement only, few suffer for want of 
that exercise which is compatible with security and necessary to 
health. I was much gratified by seeing the Royal Infirmary, a 
beautiful modern building, designed by Mr. Adams, and built 
about fifteen years since. The wards are spacious, and well ven- 
tilated ; the beds have no curtains, and the bedsteads are of 
iron ; the operation-room is lighted by a noble glass dome, 
which gives without an elegant finish to the building. From a 
gallery which runs round the room there is a fine view of the 
city and surrounding country. The patients have the benefit 
of very skilful medical attention, and the whole does great ho- 
nour to Glasgow. Near to the infirmary is the cathedral, a huge 
pile of Gothic architecture, of great antiquity, having been 
consecrated in the year 1136. The effect of its interior is quite 
destroyed, as it is divided into no less than tbree distinct church- 
es. I was glad to see an organ in one of them, and as sorry to 
find that it is not suffered to be played during Divine service. 
However, by being accustomed to see it its rigid adversaries may 
at last have no objection to hear it. There are many handsome 
churches in tlus city, which it would be tedious to mention, in 
one of which an organ had been raised and opened to assist in 
Divine service, but was speedily condemned to silence in the 
manner I have mentioned in the f(jrnser pirt of my Touj;. 



3il 

I was indebted to Dr. Cuming, Professor of Oriental Lan- 
guages, for mufih polite attention in viewing the university, the 
celebrity of which, such names as Adam Smith, Reid, Ander- 
son, and Miller, amongst its professors, have not a little aug- 
mented. The exterior of the building possesses very little of 
architectural ornament. Within, the public rooms which I saw 
were very heavy and sombre •, and the whole seemed to be m.arked 
by an undignified gloom, not a little increased by the association 
of its modern and elegant neighbour, the Hunterian Museum, 
which has been lately built by Mr. Starke, for the reception of 
Dr. Hunter's valuable collection. Only a few of the pictures 
which form a part of this academical treasure were unpacked 
and exposed to view when I was at Glasgow. Behind this 
building is the college-garden, containing avenues of stately 
trees, for the students, who, with very few exceptions, reside 
in the city. The public students wear a scarlet gown. The 
n-umber" of public and private students is about nine hundred^ 
most of whom are natives of Scotland. The plan of educa- 
tion of this university is said to be more subject to system and 
control than that pursued in the College of Edinburgh. In his 
attendance upon the lectures and studies, much is left to the 
discretion of the student. All the professors, except the Pro- 
fessor of Divinity, are supported by the funds of the college 
and the fees of the pupil, but the remunerations of the latter 
ferm too large a part of their incomes not to render exertion 
necessary, and to place interest on the side of duty. The. di- 
vinity chair, as if its study had but few attractions, and that to 
subject its professor to voluntary contribution would be probably 
dangerous to his respectable support, is wholly placed out of the 
reach of caprice, ignorance, and irreligion, by having a larger 
salary attached to it, wholly paid out of the funds of the uni- 
versity. The chairs of this university are occupied by men 
of distinguished learning and ability, as will appear by the 
following Senatns Aeademirus ;— - 



312 



Duke of Montrose, Lord ChancelJor. 
Henry Glassford, Esq. Rector, 
Dr. Duncan Macfarlane, Dean of Fac. — Patron, the University, 
William Taylor, D. D. Principal.- " . — 



RobeitFinlay, 
Hugh Macleod, 
Win. M' Turk, 
Patrick Cuming. 
Wm. Meikleham, 
James Miller, 
James Mylne, 
G. Jard ne, 
John Young, 
W. Richardson, 
Rob. Davidson, 
Robert Freer, 
James JefFray, 
James Cowper, 
Rich. Miller, 



Divinity. 
> Church History. 

Oriental Languages. 

Natural Philosophy. 

Mathematics. 

Moral Philosophy. 

Logic. 

Greek. 

Humanity. 

Civil Law. 

Medicine. 

Anatomy and Botany. 

Practical Astronomy. 

Lect. Materia Medica. 



-Patron the Crown. 
The University, 

Crown. 

University. 

Ditto. 

Ditto. 

Ditto. 

Ditto. 

Ditto. 

Ditto. 

Crown. 

Ditto. 

Ditto. 

Ditto. 



Connected with the subject of intellectual importance, I cannot 
pass over without notice the high reputation which Dr. Andrew 
Ure, Professor of Natural Philosophy and Chymistry to the 
Andersonian Institution, has obtained. As the materials by 
which mercantile exchange is effected are the frequent fruits of 
physical science, Dr. Anderson has conferred a lasting obliga- 
tion upon Glasgow by bequeathing the means for forming this 
valuable establishment, which the learning, talents, and address 
of the present Professor, have rendered a source of important 
and agreeable information to the rich citizen as well as the 
indefatigable mechanic. Glasgow can boast of having been the 
first city which has raised a monument to the immortal Nelson. 
It is a plain obelisk, 140 feet high, built of freestone, which, 
in the part exposed to the weather, has been well oiled. An 
inscription is intended to be placed upon the base. In a party 
where I was, several very long and elegant inscriptions for it 
were proposed. Upon being asked for one, I took the liberty 
of suggesting, that on one side of the base should be recorded, 
in large projecting characters in bronze, *' Glasgow to Nelson," 
and on another side the day and year of his death. Few will 
read an elaborate inscription, and every valuable particular of his 
extraordinary and momentous life is about to appear from the 
able pen of my learned and excellent friend, the Rev. J. S. 
Clarke. There is a dignity in brevity, which I felt on reading 
the inscription upon the celebrated Monument of Peter the 
Great at Petersburgh, and which suggested what I proposed. 



813 

The view of Glasgow from tbe public walk on the banks of 
ihe Clyde, near the Humane Society House, where this monu- 
ment is raised, is very fine. The view ta^^en is from Carlton- 
place, an elegant line of houses, including the Old Bridge and 
Nelson's Monument. The New Bridge is very handsome ; there 
is another behind the Old Bridge, very properly, frccB its ma- 
terials, called the Timber Bridge, for foot passengers, which is 
light and convenient. Glasgow used to be subject to terrible 
inundations; it is now less so than formerly. To describe the 
different manufactures in and near to this city would fill a vo- 
lume. The wonderful powers of steam are, I believe, more 
known and exercised at Glasgow than in any other manufactu- 
ring town. The steam-engine has been "well described to be 
*' the most valuable present which the arts of life have ever re- 
ceived from the philosopher." That philosopher was the Mar- 
quis of Worcester, who, during the reign of Charles II. wrote 
a small beok entitled, " A Century of Inventions^ in which, a- 
mongst other curious projects, the nature of the steam-engine 
is clearly pointed out. The knowledge of the laws of steam, 
wonderful as its operations already are, is considered to be but 
in its infancy. One of the most ingenious pieces of machinery 
which I saw is Mr. John Duncan's tambouring machine, which, 
he has very recently brought to perfection, by which several- 
kneedles (one which I saw contains sixty) are put in motion, 
and perform all the operations of tambouring by steam. This 
machine will perform as much as sixty women can, and will of 
course effect a very great reduction in the selling price of the 
article. The whole of the house in which these machines are is 
warmed by steam, at a very trifling expense. In mechanics, as 
applied to manufactures, Mr. J. Duncan has deservedly obtain- 
ed very high celebrity. I saw also the process of weaving car- 
ried on by steam. It was curious enough to see the shuttle im- 
pelled backwards and forwards by mere vapour. I should 
scarcely have been more surprised to have seen a -game at shut- 
tlecock performed by similar agency. Simpson's muslin-manu- 
factory is well worthy of notice, as are Thompson's machines 
for winding thread. At the houses where the singeing machines 
for burning off the superfluous threads of muslin are used, the 
traveller may s«e muslin of fine texture rolled rather slowly over 
a long and very thick bar of iron, red hot, with such care as 
not to take fire •, formerly the price of singeing one piece, cori- 
taining ten or twelve yards, was one shilling j it is now one pen- 
ny. The .singer indemnifips against burning. Cotton is the 

R r 



314 

grand staple manufacture of Glasgow, which is carried on to an 
immense extent. I saw a very large building, intended for a 
cotton manufactory, which vi^ill be warmed by steam, lighted by 
gas, and completely fire-proof. I had great pleasure in visiting 
the extensive calico-works of Richard Gillespie, Esq. In one 
of the apartments was an hydraulic engine, worked by coni- 
pressed water, the powers of which were astonishing. Here 
again steam was the reigning agent : it set a washing and rinsing 
machine in motion ; it printed and dried the calicoes, and warm- 
ed the different houses belonging to the manufactory. South- 
Wood Side, the beautiful grounds of Mr. Gillespie, but a short 
distance from the city, are also well worthy of a visit from the 
tourist. He will too be much gratified, as I was, with the glass- 
houses of Geddies, Esq. who also carries on a considerable 

manufacture of white and red lead. Glasgow has set a noble 
example to Edinburgh in the building which has been recently 
raised for dramatic representation. The exterior of the new 
theatre is very ornamental to the city. Within, however, it has 
the fault of being too lofty, which is injurious to hearing. Tt^e 
drama in Glasgow, as at Edinburgh, has had to struggle with 
bigotry ; and even now, I was informed the Glasgow theatre 
is seldom well attended. On the nights which I visited it, the 
whole of the audience might have been placed, without being 
crowded, in three of the boxes. The management of this 
theatre is in a committee of subscribers. Glasgow has many 
other public buildings which highly embellish the city, many of _ 
which are devoted to public amusements, conducted upon^an ex- 
tensive and liberal scale. There are also a grammar-school, and 
places for public instruction •, but the children are said to be 
less enlightened here than in most of the other towns of Scot- 
land, owing to the cotton-mills and other manufactories, ic 
which children at an early age can be employed. 

The Circuit Court, answering to our assizes, was holden al> 
Glasgow a short time before I left it. I was much struck with 
the ceremony which preceded and followed the arrival of the 
two judges, whose duty it was to attend on this solemn occa- 
sion. A considerable military force, with drums beating and 
colours flying, went forth to meet the judges, attended them 
back into the city as a guard of honour, and the commanding 
officer waited upon them to receive from them the countersign. 
It was a spectacle dear to the lovers of civil liberty, and an im- 
pressive homage paid to the dignity of justice. The next day 
the judges walked from the hotel to the court, through a line 



315 

pf the miiitary, attended by the sheriffs and many persons of 
great respectability. In the court I heard an elegant address 
from Lord Armadale, one of the Lords of Session, to the jury 
and sheriffs. The only causes, as I was informed, of any inte- 
rest, had been withdrawn, so that I heard none tried. The jury ; 
I learnt, give their verdict always in writing, which requires 
such legal nicety in the framing, that care is always taken to 
have a man of business in their body. Upon these circuits,, 
when a criminal is condemned to die, forty days always elapse 
between the sentence and execiitlon. The trying judge, I sup- 
pose, in consequence, has no power of granting a respite, as he 
has in England. The judges did me the honour of inviting me 
to their table at the hotel, where I met the principal persons of 
the city, friends of the noble magistrates. For this table a li- 
beral allowance is made. All the proceedings upon this oc- 
casion were calculated to inspire awe and reverence amongst the 
people. 

It would not have been an easy matter to have left this part of 
Scotland without seeing the Falls of the Clyde. In my way I 
visited the immense cotton-mills of Henry Monteith, Esq. of 
Monkland, in which not less than nine hundred persons are 
employed. It is a little town, finely situated on the banks of the 
Clyde. This gentleman has about one hundred and thirty ap- 
prentices, who appeared to enjoy as much comfort as the occu- 
pation in which they were engaged would admit. These chil- 
dren are instructed, at short intervals, after the hours of labour, 
in reading and writing, and on Sundays are neatly dressed. 
I am sorry to add that conduct so humane and benevolent is 
rarely to be met with in such a depot of premature vice, in 
such a scene of early disease and pollution, as a cotton-manu- 
factory. 

Near these mills are the beautiful ruins of Bothwell-castle -, 
and opposite to it, on the other side of the river, the Priory of 
Blantyre, so much admired, and so often described. At Ha- 
milton, which is a considerable but dirty town, I visited the pa- 
lace of that name, a large, dreary, and half-deserted pile, the 
\vell-known residence of the Dukes of Hamilton. In theshew- 
rooms are several exquisite paintings, from the pencils of Titian, 
Vandyke, Poussin, &c. That of IDaniel in the Lion's Den, by 
Rubens, is the most admired. It is a noble picture, but I think 
it wants a little more shade. The vast room which contains this 
celebrated painting is very gloomy, and furnished in the very 
worst taste. The park and grounds are extensive and fine, and 



316 

jhe surrcunding country very beautiful. At Stnetand, the coun- 
ty-residence of Lord Armadale, I had the pleasure of agairi 
experiencing the politeness and hospitality of his Lordship. 
The cotton-mills at Lanark are upon an immense scale, in 
which about two thousand persons are employed, who reside in 
a regular-built town adjoining. The transfer of children to this 
and other cotton-mills from England, is, to the honour of the 
country, less than it used to be. The Orphan-house, F am in- 
formed, has refused to send any more. The state of those un- 
happy children can be duly felt only by being seen. . Their ten- 
der lungs are exposed to the line particles of the cotton wool, 
which are continually floating in the air of the rooms, ex- 
cept during their meals ; they are employed from six in the 
jnorning until eight at night ; and after that hour, when they 
are exhausted and desirous of rest, an affectation of humane at- 
tention is displayed by many of their masters, in having them 
instructed till ten in reading and writing ; during their working 
hours they are associated with the most abandoned and profli- 
gate. The cataracts in the neighbourhood have been long cele- 
brated j that of Stonebyers, within about two miles of Lanark, 
consisting of three descents, rolling in mighty masses over shel- 
ving rocks, of a dark brown colour, contrasting with the rich 
and luxuriant foliage of the rising woods on either side, is very 
fine. Several artists have made it the subject of their study, i 
have seen a faithful and beautiful view of it by that able artist, 
William Daniell, Esq. A. Corra Linn is very different ; it is 
higher, but not so broad. Its form is more graceful, and so is 
the scenery through which it rolls. It looks like a cataract of 
milk. The Falls of Bonniton, above it, the walk to which is 
exquisite, are much less considerable, and as I had seen the 
other two first, they made no great impression upon my mind. 
The country immediately in the neighbourhood of these falls is 
quite a paradise, and is too well known not to render further 
clescription tedious. 

Upon quitting Scotland I stopped for a few days at Rugby, in 
"Warwickshire, to revisit the scenes in which the years of my 
boyhood had been passed. My reader has, no doubt, tasted of 
this tranquil, I had almost said melancholy gratification. Like 
me he has perhaps quitted the hurly-burly of life, to trace his 
name on some favourite tree, pleased to fancy that respect for 
his character had left it unobliterated, to hear the sound of the 
old school-bell, to cap verses upon the Well-known bench, to 
spread a veil of oblivion over the darker days of existence, to 



317 

wrap himself up in the past, and endeavour to be again tiie 
thoughtless happy schoolboy. I was much gratified to find that 
this distinguished seminary is rapidly recovering its former cele- 
brity, under the firm and able management of its present learn- 
ed and amiable head master. Dr. Wooll. With this gentleman I 
had the pleasure of revisiting Bilton, about two miles distant, the 
retired seat of Addison, and felt a secret gratification in observing 
that the pictures and furniture within, and the grounds without 
appeared to have experienced no change but what they owed to 
unsparing Time. 

I have now brought to a close my endeavours to delineate the 
people and the country, which form the principal subject of this 
volume. I may be charged with rash presumption for having 
attempted a subject so near home ; but I have the pleasure of 
reflecting that I hjive spared no pains to be correct ; and, where 
I have erred, I shall be happy to have my errors pointed out. In 
taking leave of my reader, I have only to regret that my powers 
fltf escecution have not been more answerable to ray design* 



FINIS 



